Knowledge was essential to colonisation.
From producing supposedly objective knowledge about the ‘colonial other’, through to the constructions of who was seen to be a legitimate knowledge producer, and what the legitimate means of knowledge production were, colonialism involved what Boaventura de Sousa Santos refers to as ‘epistemicide’. This seminar will delve into questions such as how this epistemicide continues into the present, how can we think against and outside of this epistemicide, and what knowledges and schemes of value can be developed once we move beyond this epistemicide. Each panellist will provide a short intervention on this topic before proceeding to a group conversation and audience Q+A. The panellists are Sophie Marie Niang, Melz Owusu, and Jonathan Yong, chaired by Dr Ali Meghji.
This event took place on Tue 16 March 2021
The resources and readings mentioned during this session include:
- Owusu, Melz. The Free Black University.
- Olufemi, Lola. 2020. Feminism Interrupted. Pluto Press.
- Lorde, Audre. 1984. “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” in Sister Outsider.
- Hill Collins, Patricia. 2018. “Critical Conversations: Intersectionality and Sociology”. Keynote lecture at the 50 Years of Sociology Anniversary Conference, University of Cambridge.
- Harney, Stefano, and Fred Moten. 2013. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. Minor Compositions.
The readings recommended by the panellists at the end of the session include:
- Vergès, Françoise. 2021. A Decolonial Feminism. Pluto Press.
- Chen, Kuan-Hsing. 2010. Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization. Duke University Press.
- Shange, Savannah. Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness, and Schooling in San Francisco. Duke University Press.
- Butler, Octavia. 1993. The Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows
