SCIENCE UNDERGROUND: DECOLONIAL METHODS

It has been well-documented by now that those facing the heaviest impacts of accelerating climate change and environmental catastrophes have largely been communities of color and / or working class. Many of these communities are also survivors of colonialism’s deeper ongoing legacies of dispossession as well as of capitalist extraction projects. Yet these same communities have long had much to teach on how to be in better relations with our planet and each other – in part through a forced “resilience” and in large part through ancestral knowledge of the land. The purpose of this seminar is to train students to think critically about their research, to broaden the scope of what counts as expertise, and to ethically engage with effected communities when it comes to the production of knowledge and doing science.

We begin by examining the colonial foundations of the sciences, with a special focus on the geo- and climate sciences. The ideological underpinnings of these sciences assume the earth to be an inert object ripe for exploitation; this legacy of European modernity is often at odds with the worldviews of indigenous peoples and their relations with nature. We then explore several anti-colonial and critical science scholars’ works and ask: what would it mean to revisit the foundations of modern science with a decolonial lens? How do we know (study) and relate to a place in a non-extractive and mutually respectful way that centers local communities and indigenous knowledge and practices? We will explore these questions through several examples, including an in-depth dive into this seminar’s ongoing collaborative community project with The Black School, a New Orleans based community organization facing lead contamination on their land within the context of a long legacy of environmental racism.

The Seminar will feature lectures (including guest lectures) on Tuesdays and discussion sections for readings and lectures on Thursdays.

Discussion section reading will follow Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice, Edited by Farhana Sultana. However, students can collectively decide along with the discussion leader on additional or different readings relatives to their interests and discussions as the semester proceeds.

Students taking the seminar for 3 credits and who aim to decolonize their own research will be trained in ethnographic methods in order to complete their own mini-ethnography projects and presen