Dabagian - Multimedia Solutions for Historical and Political Education

Lilit Dabagian, M.A.

public history practitioner, educator and researcher

I am a Berlin-based public history practitioner and designer of multimedia educational projects from Kyrgyzstan/Central Asia with a distinct interest in (post-)socialist and (post-)colonial experience, urban memory spaces and migration.

Designing and implementing versatile educational and artistic projects in the field of public history, I have collaborated with different civil society actors such as the Körber Foundation, Heinrich-Böll Foundation, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, Friedrich-Naumann Foundation, and dvv international.

I hold a degree in Philosophy (B.A.), Media Production (M.A.) and completed a non-degree program in Liberal Arts at the Bard College Berlin. I publish on the topics such as transmedia storytelling and the musealization of the past in international peer-reviewed outlets in collaboration with Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient and delivered presentations in Berlin, Bishkek, Michigan, Reykjavik, and Tbilisi.

Lilit Dabagian, M.A.

public history practitioner, educator and researcher

I am a Berlin-based public history practitioner and designer of multimedia educational projects from Kyrgyzstan/Central Asia with a distinct interest in (post-)socialist and

(post-)colonial experience, urban memory spaces and migration.

Designing and implementing versatile educational and artistic projects in the field of public history, I have collaborated with different civil society actors such as the Körber Foundation, Heinrich-Böll Foundation, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, Friedrich-Naumann Foundation, and dvv international.

I hold a degree in Philosophy (B.A.), Media Production (M.A.) and completed a non-degree program in Liberal Arts at the Bard College Berlin. I publish on the topics such as transmedia storytelling and the musealization of the past in international peer-reviewed outlets in collaboration with Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient and delivered presentations in Berlin, Bishkek, Michigan, Reykjavik, and Tbilisi.

core skills for public history projects

design of educational projects

I conceptualize, design, and manage digital and offline learning projects. When developing educational projects, I blend sociological methods, artistic practices and media tools.

developing various formats for the representation of outcomes

The results of my projects comprise multimedia (zine, interactive photos, and maps) and offline formats (exhibitions and walking tours).

media pedagogy

I have been teaching media skills at university level (University of Central Asia), in workshops, and for researchers in the field of history and anthropology (Leibnitz Zentrum Moderner Orient).

academic scrunity

Areas of my academic interest comprise politics of memory and urban history; representations of the past; the history of everyday life in former socialist countries; language and post-colonial hierarchies in Central Asia; transmedia storytelling for education.

language skills

English - fluent
German - fluent
Russian - native
Kyrgyz - working proficiency.

creativity

I integrate artistic practices into my projects and experiment with methods of representation.

design of educational projects

I conceptualize, design, and manage digital and offline learning projects. When developing educational projects, I blend sociological methods, artistic practices and media tools.

developing various formats for the representation of outcomes

The results of my projects comprise multimedia (zine, interactive photos, and maps) and offline formats (exhibitions and walking tours).

media pedagogy

I have been teaching media skills at university level (University of Central Asia), in workshops, and for researchers in the field of history and anthropology (Leibnitz Zentrum Moderner Orient).

academic scrunity

Areas of my academic interest comprise politics of memory and urban history; representations of the past; the history of everyday life in former socialist countries; language and post-colonial hierarchies in Central Asia; transmedia storytelling for education.

language skills

English - fluent
German - fluent
Russian - native
Kyrgyz - working proficiency.

creativity

I integrate artistic practices into my projects and experiment with methods of representation.

selected works

City of Settlers (upcoming), a workshop on history of migration to Bishkek

What can a single photograph reveal about the lives of those who settled in Pishpek, Frunze, or Bishkek? What untold stories lie within old family's photo albums? What was it like to be a newcomer to Bishkek in different decades?

City of Settlers is a workshop program that introduces Bishkek’s diverse history focusing on stories of ordinary residents through family and personal photographs. Workshop participants will examine the unique stories of those who have shaped Pishpek, Frunze, and Bishkek whether they arrived as settled (semi-)nomads, peasants, refugees, deportees, evacuees, factory workers, or students.

Learn more here

History Camp 2024: History-Based Propaganda in Popular Culture

How does popular culture shape our understanding of history? How do we detect and counter ideological messages embedded in entertaining stories?

Stories They Tell was a three-day workshop held in Riga, aimed at equipping participants with the skills to identify and challenge history-based propaganda in popular culture.

Drawing from media literacy principles, the workshop introduces participants to the fundamentals of propaganda with a focus on its historical applications. Participants explored how history-based propaganda manifests in popular culture, learned to ask critical questions about media products, and analyzed story components.

Participants created diverse media projects with innovative AI tools to offer alternative narratives and reflections on history-based propaganda in popular culture.

The workshop was held within the framework of the EUSTORY Next Generation Summit, implemented by DVV International in cooperation with Körber-Stiftung and with the financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office.

Learn more here

Photo Credits: Körber-Stiftung

Poznavaya Lokal'noye (2023), a walking tour program on identity, war-related migration in Tbilisi, Yerevan and Bishkek, and difficult pasts

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the war-related migration of Russian citizens to Georgia, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan have raised difficult questions about unifying and dividing power of history. During the lab, participants were invited to engage in a conversation about the multi-layered nature of past and present. The project resulted in walking tours in Tbilisi and Yerevan.

About my participation

I was one of the lecturers with the input on politics of memory and urban history in Kyrgyzstan. My lecture answered the following questions:
Why is the capital of Kyrgyzstan Russian-speaking and were there other historical alternatives? What does the Lenin statue in the center of Bishkek say? Why is there no museum of urban history in Bishkek?

More information https://localabs.notion.site

Visualizing Yerevan (2023). Part II, a walking tour program

Visualizing Yerevan started with the workshop in the summer of 2021. The next year, participants began developing research-based itinerary projects ranging from the history of cinema culture to the autoethnography of being a stranger in the capital of Armenia. The results were showcased to a wider audience in Yerevan in the format of test walking tours through the city.

More details here http://visualizing.yerevan.tilda.ws/?fbclid=IwAR1FkZI0vQGjIioD9CdkyN73Nc9aAwwyfxMydL4MolSbzzwqtf3ilVzydOo

Visualizing Yerevan (2021). Part I, a workshop on urban memory

After the successful realization of the pilot project Visualizing Bishkek (2018-2019) the project series turned in the sequel to the capital of the Republic of Armenia. In cooperation with the Heinrich Boell Foundation Yerevan Office-South Caucasus Region the Berlin-based NGO NIDID - New Ideas for Development, Identity and Democracy paved the way for the follow-up Visualizing Yerevan (2021 -2023). Twenty participants from Armenia forged a 'fresh' perspective on the history of the city and entered into a critical discussion on the impact of present-day urban transformations on the historical legacy of the city.

More details https://ge.boell.org/en/2022/08/08/visualizing-yerevan-2022

https://readymag.website/sensorysociology/3226878/?fbclid=IwAR1tXuWCl17ILj3VxM61rzMDNAgrvA0i-3_ynO69ut4LAyD8vZl_ShFil8U

#30PostSovietYears: Phantom Pasts or Everyday Present, a digital workshop on urban memory in former socialist countries

The online workshop program offered a space for young people born after the collapse of the socialist system to reflect on the relation of their generation to the socialist past. The central element of the workshop program constituted a multimedia photo project. The participants used photography as an exploratory tool which helped to sensitize and sharpen their vision directed to the surroundings they lived in.

More details https://koerber-stiftung.de/en/projects/eustory/jugendaktivitaeten/30post-soviet-years/

https://historycampus.org/project/eustory-youth-activities-2021/30postsovietyears/zine/

https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/about-us/news/30postsovietyears-phantom-pasts-or-everyday-present-zine

The Online History Camp (2020), a digital workshop for participants from Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Ukraine, and Belarus

Within the framework of the online History Camp 2020, participants equipped with theoretical expertise, artistic approach, and digital storytelling tools explored the fabric of painful pasts through the optics of family memory. They learned about the multifaceted “i” family memory which sometimes concurred and sometimes challenged rigid national grand narratives.

More details https://historycampus.org/project/online-history-camp-2020/

Memomusor (2018-2023), an archival art exhibition turned into an art intervention

In 2019, for the Long Night of Museums in Bishkek, a small exhibition space at the Gapar Aitiev Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek showcased its internal documentation spanning different decades, which had been discovered in the institution’s basement some months before. The exhibition featured instructions for a Cold War simulation game intended for museum workers, explanatory letters from workers in the period of Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign, the announcement of an extravagant exhibition amid the economic hardship of the 1990s, and various other fragments testifying to the museum’s history of everyday life.

More details https://www.zmo.de/veranstaltungen/the-gapar-aitiev-kyrgyz-national-museum-of-fine-arts-the-memomusor-project-and-the-trashification-of-historical-memory

https://metropolism.com/nl/feature/47990_dekoloniale_kunst_voorbij_rusland/

https://www.academia.edu/95078413/Immersive_Historytelling_and_Counter_Memories_Re_Presenting_the_Past_in_Virtual_Realities_in_Explorations_of_Counter_Memory_conference_Nordic_MSA_Reykjav%C3%ADk_Iceland_13_14_October_2022?hb-sb-sw=103093419

Visualizing Memory (2018-2020), a sensory anthropological workshop on urban memory

Drawing from art and anthropology alike, the project sought to explore and visualize the multi-layered landscape of urban memory. Sensory anthropology emphasizes the importance of senses for anthropological observations and is preoccupied with finding novel and unusual ways to communicate these observations. When exploring historical layers in the urban landscape, participants employed various sensory methods which are translated into auto-anthropological texts, sound impressions, as well as, still and moving images.

More details https://readymag.website/sensorysociology/1863395/