Ramon Grosfoguel @UoP II: Epistemic Racism/Sexism in the Westernized Universities 1/7
Channel: Dr. Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa
Date: 2018-02-13

“How is it possible that the canon of thought in all the disciplines of the Social Sciences and Humanities in the Westernized University is based on the knowledge production by a few men from five countries in Western Europe?”
Professor Grosfoguel turns to the '4 genocides/epistemicides' of the long 16th century: 'against the Jewish and Muslim origin population in the conquest of Al-Andalus, against indigenous people in the conquest of the Americas, against Africans kidnapped and enslaved in the Americas and against women burned alive, accused of being witches in Europe'. Grosfoguel argues that epistemicide - 'the extermination of knowledge and ways of knowing' - is key to understanding the Western man's monopoly on knowledge, from the 16th century to the present day.

Ramón Grosfoguel is Associate Professor Ethnic Studies, specialised in Decoloniality, International Migration, Political-Economy of the World-System, Racism and Islamophobia.