Contributors

The writers and editors who make The Litarn — Issue 01: Origins

Sofia Rakhimova

Editor in Chief

Sofia co-founded The Litarn in 2024. She writes about the intersection of cultural psychology and literary form, and holds an MA in Comparative Literature from Nazarbayev University.

Editorial

Bekzod Tursunov

Managing Editor

Bekzod oversees production and editorial operations at The Litarn. He previously worked as a journalist at Vlast and studied journalism at KIMEP University in Almaty.

Editorial

Tomás Pereira

Contributing Writer

Tomás writes on philosophy of mind, personal identity, and the science of consciousness. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from Central European University and is based in Almaty.

Elena Kim

Contributing Editor, Science

Elena is a science journalist and contributing editor at The Litarn. She covers cognitive neuroscience and writes on the science of the self. She is based in Seoul and Almaty.

Arman Bekov

Contributing Editor, Culture

Arman covers digital culture, identity, and social media for The Litarn. He has written for Orda.kz and a number of international outlets, and teaches media studies in Astana.

James Reyes

Contributing Editor, Essays

James is a neuroscientist and writer whose work appears at the intersection of empirical research and personal essay. He is completing a fellowship in cognitive science at the University of Amsterdam.

Dilnoza Yusupova

Contributing Writer

Dilnoza is an essayist and poet from Tashkent, currently based in Berlin. Her work explores language, displacement, and the politics of belonging. She writes in Uzbek, Russian, and English.

Madina Akhmetova

Contributing Writer

Madina is a writer and translator from Almaty. She writes about multilingualism, the body in language, and what it means to think across tongues. Her first collection of essays is forthcoming.

Sara Voss

Contributing Writer

Sara is a science writer and former cognitive psychology researcher. She writes for The Litarn on memory, perception, and the reliability of the mind's own account of itself.

In this issue The False Memory Factory

Marcus Lee

Contributing Writer

Marcus is a cultural critic and researcher interested in collective identity, political psychology, and the tension between individual and community. He teaches social theory in Singapore.

Priya Nair

Contributing Writer

Priya is a philosopher and journalist based in Bangalore. She writes on free will, moral responsibility, and the ethics of mind. Her conversations for The Litarn pair scientists with philosophers and let neither win easily.

Aisha Mercer

Contributing Writer

Aisha is a linguist and writer from Bishkek, currently at Oxford. She writes on the relationship between language, emotion, and culture — the ways that what we can say shapes what we can feel.

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