As the Managing Editor for Global Voices, I explore new ways, formats and technologies to tell stories grounded in local knowledge aimed at a global audience. I first started in GV in 2015 as a writer and translator.
Having worked and lived mostly in Central Europe, Central Asia, the Himalayan region and East Asia, I write about those regions with a particular focus on identity and historical memory, minority groups, arts and culture, language, and less known cross-regional cultural influences. I often teach on-line about media and culture-related issues, and have a passion for literary translation, also acting as Editor at Large for Central Asia at Asymptote Journal
Latest posts by Filip Noubel
Uzbekistan as creative chaos: A photographer's interpretation of his nation's search for identity
An emerging Uzbek photographer considers how a post-Soviet society continues to explore its own identity, between tradition, market economy and the irony of modern life.
How a young photographer puts modern Mongolia in focus
Kush Zorigt's lens captures all the complexities and contradictions of Mongolia today: gleaming skyscrapers, toxic pollution, and the surprising stories of people who live or survive among them.
‘We could present our revolution at a design festival': a Belarusian artist reflects on protest imagery
Many of the banners and placards waved by Belarusian protesters are works of art in their own right. Theirs is a mass movement with an artistic sensibility, says Darya Sazanovich.
‘Lukashenka's time is over': a Belarusian writer urges solidarity from afar
"Lukashenka says Belarusians abroad are controlled by puppet-masters, but it's the other way around. It is the Belarusian protesters in Belarus who are the masters, and we, the diaspora, are...
‘Uyghur pop music humanizes and amplifies their hopes': Interview with musicologist Elise Anderson
"Uyghur pop is a source of both entertainment and rich inner life. Another role it can play is in humanizing and amplifying Uyghur hopes, aspirations, and lives."
Belarus in turmoil: The view from neighbouring Lithuania
Lithuania has long played an outsized role in European engagement with Belarus. Its capital Vilnius teems with political exiles from Minsk — are today's protesters fated to join them?
Thirty years after his tragic death, iconic Soviet musician Viktor Tsoi continues to inspire demonstrators
Even younger generations of Russian-speakers who have no memory of the Soviet period are enraptured by the story of Viktor the rebel, who sided with the people against the system.
‘This is a partisan movement of a partisan nation': a Belarusian poet reflects on her homeland's turmoil
"The greatest weakness made visible in these past months has been how little the state knows its own people," says poet Valzhyna Mort
Meet the artist embroidering Belarus’ protests
From faraway Prague, the Belarusian artist Rufina Bazlova is paying homage to the protests in her homeland by depicting them in traditional Belarusian embroidery.
The long journey to Uyghur visibility: An interview with French author Sylvie Lasserre
The issue of China's treatment of the Uyghurs is slowly getting noticed in France, according to the author of the first book in French about Uyghur identity.
In Georgia, cinema is the latest flashpoint in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights
Months after its release, a film about a gay Georgian dancer continues to inflame heated debates about the place of the LGBTQ+ community in this conservative country.
The state of LGBTQ+ rights in India: An interview with Supreme Court Advocate Saurabh Kirpal
Global Voices interviewed Saurabh Kirpal, a Supreme Court advocate, to find out the state of LGBTQI+ rights in India two years after the country decriminalized homosexual acts.
Czech author Radka Denemarková on Kundera and patriarchy in the Czech literature scene
"We still await a book about Kundera written by a young, sensitive, intelligent woman, as Kundera's world is based on patriarchal values."
The Uyghur Meshrep: A traditional community gathering censored in China
While Uyghurs have for centuries celebrated male bonding and cultural transmission in a ritual of music and conversations, China is now banning the original concept of the tradition.
Uyghur emojis help spread message of cultural resistance over social media
Emojis representing Uyghur characters and culture are now available on the encrypted messenger platform Telegram in an effort by the Uyghur diaspora in Russian-speaking countries to raise visibility.
Milan Kundera's first Czech biography: Another public dressing-down in his homeland?
"An optimist can still hope there will be a time when the debate around Milan Kundera will overcome its long-lasting neurotic phase."
In the Czech Republic, controversy over a newly re-erected Catholic monument ends in flames
The reinstatement of a Catholic monument in the middle of Prague historical center brings back a passionate debate about Czech identity and opposing views on historical heroes and villains
Milada Horáková: 70 years after her sham trial and execution, Czechs reflect on their communist past
A creative visual campaign reopens old wounds as Czech society reflects on their communist past and the victims of Stalinist sham trials, including the feminist Milada Horáková.
Afro-Czechs on visibility, racism and life in the Czech Republic (Part II)
"For Czech society, accepting that a non-white person can be Czech is too unusual and often not digestible."
