Jeong and asar: Theorising reparative concepts in gendered artistic, activist, and academic spaces

In this article, we argue that the concepts developed in Central Asia are largely absent from the conceptual toolbox of the national and international academics researching the region in the field of art, activism studies, and education. We maintain that the exclusion is happening for multiple reasons: the domination of English language in global academic debates, the policy pressures for academics to meet global publications expectations in a narrow set of Western academic outlets and the multiple ongoing colonialities and hierarchies in the artistic, civic, and knowledge production processes. By specifically focusing on the case of gendered art, activism, and academic spaces in Central Asia, we show that while the region is used as an empirical testing ground for ready-made Western theories, local art, feminist-activist, and academic initiatives may play as credible sources of knowledge production, forms of resistance, and spaces for transnational solidarity and theorisations. We highlight more caring ways of producing scholarship by describing the concepts of asar and jeong and theorising the three cases of sonic, feminist, and academic asar and jeong. We conclude by urging scholars to focus on anti-colonial, reparative, and inclusive non-extractive research practices and the development of a diverse conceptual vocabulary.