#decolonial studies

[opossumprince]

Hello, I’ve been busy with my own academic writing, just popping in to talk about something important that makes me incredibly mad :

Jazmin “Sunny” Murphy and Wolf Conservation Center are facing crass racist backlash after posting a free webinar about decolonisation in conservation efforts.

A few days ago, this video of science communicator Jazmin “Sunny” Murphy's webinar "The 'Decolonization' of Conservation is Deeper than You Think" was hosted and then shared by Wolf Conservation Center, a non-profit environmental education organization with a YouTube channel I like (you may have seen one of their usual videos featuring wolves).

Right now, most of the comments on the webinar do not discuss conservation, decolonisation, or any other point of the topic ; instead, they range anywhere from diatribes about "this is disgusting, identity politics corrupt everything, where are the wolves, you're pushing an agenda and I'm unfollowing" to very direct racist insults and rants. The video has significantly less views and likes than the rest of WCC's channel, and they have lost a good chunk of its followers who clearly seem to think conservation exists in a vacuum and consists of watching cute animal videos, while academic research is useless and decolonial studies are an abomination upon this earth - to the point of instantly losing interest in conservation efforts upon seeing them. This unjust and violent mass dogpiling reaction is painful to see (if expected), incredibly disrespectful towards Murphy and her work, and might completely discourage WCC from ever sharing intellectual content again. It has to be fought. I strongly advise anyone who sees this to help Sunny and WCC face the hatred by at least giving the video a like. You can also give it a watch, leave a positive comment, follow the channel, or support Jazmin “Sunny” Murphy's research and WCC's conservation efforts.

[afutureworththinkingabout]

Master and Servant: Disciplinarity and the Implications of AI and Cyborg Identity

Much of my research deals with the ways in which bodies are disciplined and how they go about resisting that discipline. In this piece, adapted from one of the answers to my PhD preliminary exams written and defended two months ago, I "name the disciplinary strategies that are used to control bodies and discuss the ways that bodies resist those strategies." Additionally, I address how strategies of embodied control and resistance have changed over time, and how identifying and existing as a cyborg and/or an artificial intelligence can be understood as a strategy of control, resistance, or both. In Jan Golinski’s Making Natural Knowledge, he spends some time discussing the different understandings of the word “discipline” and the role their transformations have played in the definition and transmission of knowledge as both artifacts and culture. In particular, he uses the space in section three of chapter two to discuss the role Foucault has played in historical understandings of knowledge, categorization, and disciplinarity. Using Foucault’s work in Discipline and Punish, we can draw an explicit connection between the various meanings “discipline” and ways that bodies are individually, culturally, and socially conditioned to fit particular modes of behavior, and the specific ways marginalized peoples are disciplined, relating to their various embodiments. This will demonstrate how modes of observation and surveillance lead to certain types of embodiments being deemed “illegal” or otherwise unacceptable and thus further believed to be in need of methodologies of entrainment, correction, or reform in the form of psychological and physical torture, carceral punishment, and other means of institutionalization.

[(Locust, "Master and Servant (Depeche Mode Cover)"]

Read the rest of Master and Servant: Disciplinarity and the Implications of AI and Cyborg Identity at A Future Worth Thinking About

[afutureworththinkingabout]

Audio, Transcript, and Slides from "SFF and STS: Teaching Science, Technology, and Society via Pop Culture"

Below are the slides, audio, and transcripts for my talk "SFF and STS: Teaching Science, Technology, and Society via Pop Culture" given at the

2019 Conference for the Society for the Social Studies of Science, in early September

.

(Cite as: Williams, Damien P. "SFF and STS: Teaching Science, Technology, and Society via Pop Culture," talk given at the 2019 Conference for the Society for the Social Studies of Science, September 2019)

[audio mp3="http://www.afutureworththinkingabout.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/DPW4S2019-2.mp3"][/audio]

[Direct Link to the Mp3]

[Damien Patrick Williams]

Thank you, everybody, for being here. I'm going to stand a bit far back from this mic and project, I'm also probably going to pace a little bit. So if you can't hear me, just let me know. This mic has ridiculously good pickup, so I don't think that'll be a problem.

So the conversation that we're going to be having today is titled as "SFF and STS: Teaching Science, Technology, and Society via Pop Culture."

I'm using the term "SFF" to stand for "science fiction and fantasy," but we're going to be looking at pop culture more broadly, because ultimately, though science fiction and fantasy have some of the most obvious entrees into discussions of STS and how making doing culture, society can influence technology and the history of fictional worlds can help students understand the worlds that they're currently living in, pop Culture more generally, is going to tie into the things that students are going to care about in a way that I think is going to be kind of pertinent to what we're going to be talking about today.

So why we are doing this: Why are we teaching it with science fiction and fantasy? Why does this matter? I've been teaching off and on for 13 years, I've been teaching philosophy, I've been teaching religious studies, I've been teaching Science, Technology and Society. And I've been coming to understand as I've gone through my teaching process that not only do I like pop culture, my students do? Because they're people and they're embedded in culture. So that's kind of shocking, I guess.

But what I've found is that one of the things that makes students care the absolute most about the things that you're teaching them, especially when something can be as dry as logic, or can be as perhaps nebulous or unclear at first, I say engineering cultures, is that if you give them something to latch on to something that they are already from with, they will be more interested in it. If you can show to them at the outset, "hey, you've already been doing this, you've already been thinking about this, you've already encountered this, they will feel less reticent to engage with it."

……

Read the rest of Audio, Transcript, and Slides from "SFF and STS: Teaching Science, Technology, and Society via Pop Culture" at A Future Worth Thinking About

[sublime-courage]

Mayan Ceremonies and the Rediscovery of Time 

The Mayan conception of time was one of the most sophisticated systems of temporal understanding in the ancient world. Developed independently of Western thought, it integrated astronomical precision with spiritual meaning, generating calendars that aligned human activity with celestial events. Though much of this knowledge has been lost or fragmented through colonization, surviving evidence…

[themnervouspills-blog]

crossing paths

I am ...19 

I carry A Grain of Wheat in my bag longer than required and I pore over Ngugi's arguments around the political use of the English language. I envy his escape into Gikuyu and the loss of my own languages smothers me for weeks. It's the first year of my English degree and Ngugi's work is saving me from being stuck.

...21 

The acid-free blue folders which are used to store archive material, are meant to ensure permanence. I catalogue file after file until I come across a folder with 'Ngugi Wa Thiongo' written across it in 2B pencil. It's an unexpected surprise to suddenly find him here in the archive on such a quiet day. A decades old petition for Ngugi's release from prison is in my hand and in the other, one of his hand written letters. I spend two days cataloguing his file and email an old seminar leader to tell her the news.

...23 

I'm re-stocking the books on our stall in the brief lull in-between lectures. Selling books is an interesting way to observe a conference and today has been busier than usual. A small man approaches the stall and greets the owner with familiarity. I struggle to place him. She introduces us and he shakes my hand warmly. Ngugi wa Thiongo's voice is soft and friendly - he is wrapped up in a thick coat against the cold and white peppers his hair. Later when I'm sitting with friends he is wearing a bright shirt and references Akala with delight. I silently thank him for giving me a language which helps me breathe.