Alison Wylie - Bearing Witness (16/2/2021)
Channel: Dominic Berry
Date: 2021-02-20

This seminar was given as part of the What is Epistemic Decolonization? 2021 seminar series. For more about the series, and to register for future seminars, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-is-epistemic-decolonization-online-seminar-series-tickets-127446105733

To learn more about Prof. Wylie's research please visit: 
https://alisonwylie.net/

The chair was Dr Abigail Nieves Delgado:
https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophy/wtundwg/team/delgado

Abstract: Bearing Witness

My aim in this seminar is to sharpen the focus of questions about what role we philosophers of science can usefully play in decolonizing the epistemic underpinnings of our own practice as well as that of the sciences we study. Recent strategies for decolonizing archaeological practice in settler/colonial contexts are a rich source of advice and of cautionary tales in this connection. I draw on these – specifically, an account of inquiry as a practice of “bearing witness” – to make concrete the promise and the challenges of building collaborative partnerships that can reorient what we do and how we do it.

Prof. Wylie shares the following resources:
Indigenous/Science, UBC research cluster: https://indigenousscience.ubc.ca/

Rhy McMillan, Dominique Weis, Aviva Rathbone, Jason Woolman, “Where Did Our Belongings Come From?: Identifying Long-distance Transport of Obsidian Across the Ancient Pacific Northwest based on Indigenous-led Research Initiatives”: https://indigenousscience.ubc.ca/events/jan-3-2020-where-did-our-belongings-come

Coulthard, Glean Sean. 2014. Red Skins, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Daigle, Michelle. 2019. “The Spectacle of Reconciliation: On (the) Unsettling Responsibilities to Indigenous Peoples in the Academy.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 37 (4): 703–21. 

Shotwell, Alexis. 2016. Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press. 

Simons, Eric, Andrew Martindale, and Alison Wylie. 2021. “Bearing Witness : What Can Archaeology Contribute in an Indian Residential School Context ?” In Working with and for Ancestors: Collaboration in the Care and Study of Ancestral Remains, edited by Chelsea H. Meloche, Laure Spake, and Katherine L. Nichols, 21–31. 

Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. 2012. “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society 1 (1): 1–40.

Wylie, Alison. 2015. “A Plurality of Pluralisms: Collaborative Practice in Archaeology.” In Objectivity in Science, edited by Flavia Padovani, Alan Richardson, and Jonathan Y Tsou, 189–210. Dordrecht: Springer.