Round table “Ask your grandma. Reflecting on family stories through art, literature, and decolonial thinking”

Through this conversation, we will discuss our approaches to understanding family history, its personal and collective significance, and how we can translate these stories into our contemporary lives and practices in the context of multiple crises.

Participants: 

Elmira Kakabayeva is an independent researcher and writer from Kazakhstan. After receiving her master’s degree in social anthropology, in 2022, she founded an online creative writing course, “Family Ethnography, or How to Decolonize Creative Writing.” Currently, she facilitates the community of Central-Asian women writers that was created through the course. Elmira is also a Research Coordinator at the Global Racisms Institute for Social Transformation at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge.

Victoria Sarangova is an artist of Kalmyk origin based in Berlin, Germany. In her practice, she explores themes of progress, memory, and identity—often rooted in the context of her homeland Kalmykia, a republic in the southwest of Russia. Drawing on multiple “in-between” standpoints—including her mixed background and ongoing migration journey—she re-calls, re-cognizes, traces, and unfolds layered histories and inherited narratives. 

Aida Sulova is a multi-disciplinary artist from Kyrgyzstan now living and working in New York. She examines archives, artifacts, and objects within a contemporary framework, seeking to uncover the stories, traditions, and symbolic meanings embedded in the tangible aspects of her culture.