“My Name, My Story” is a student-led American University of Central Asia (AUCA) project affiliated with the network-wide EHCN project To Be – Named. To Be – Named is a series of physical and digital art installations as well as a concomitant collection of essays on the practice of naming and how it reveals the processes of colonialism, nationalism, and decolonization in everyday life. AUCA’s contribution to the project, “My Name, My Story,” will be a physical art exhibition and a digitally curated collection of oral history interviews with AUCA students and members of the community in which interviewees share how they received their name/s, the value they place on them, and how they believe those names speak to the history of themselves, their family, and their communities. The project uses video recording and editing to put together a digital exhibition in order to translate the academic concepts of colonialism and decolonization for audiences through the experiences of community members.

A selection of "My Name, My Story" interviews are available, and will compose part of AUCA's digital exhibition as a component of To Be – Named.

Project supervisors: Professor Aijamal Sarybaeva, Professor Daniyar Karabaev

Student interviewers: Aidai Anvarbek kyzy, Adina Sulumbekova, Salkynai Emilbekova, Nargiza Maksatova

21 AUCA student interviewees