Refusing Archives of Possibility

Key Question Being Explored in This Insight:

Petra Mikulan aims to explore the concept of refusal within the framework of temporal ethics, especially in settler academia in the Global North.

View the page of: Petra Mikulan

Institution: University of British Columbia

Explore more insights in:

Education Professional Rights, Equality & Justice in Education

Media Literacy Toolkit

Faculti's Media Literacy Toolkit helps viewers critically engage with academic insights by analyzing the research context, identifying perspectives, and encouraging thoughtful evaluation.

Critical Questions to Consider ▼

What assumptions does the research make?
Are there alternative perspectives not explored?
What are the limitations of the research method?

Bias and Perspective Awareness ▼

This research comes from University of British Columbia . Reflect on how the institution's academic focus and research partnerships may shape the questions being explored.

Further Reading ▼

Read the Study

Petra Mikulan aims to explore the concept of refusal within the framework of temporal ethics, especially in settler academia in the Global North.

Image courtesy of interviewee. July 19, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

The study examines the concept of refusal in the context of temporizing ethics, particularly in secular academia in the global North. It critiques conventional archeological principles that frame human actions within a linear, progressive timeline, contributing to a colonial and extractive mindset. The research highlights how archives are not merely historical repositories but active mechanisms that shape educational possibilities, often reinforcing structures of power and authority while sidelining non-Western and indigenous perspectives.

The context of this exploration is framed by ongoing systemic oppression within academia, advocating for a shift towards ethical practices that challenge redemptive, messianic narratives of justice that defer action to the future. It emphasizes the need for pedagogies of refusal that encourage educators and students to envision alternative methods of teaching and learning.

Key thinkers from indigenous and black feminist perspectives are referenced, who argue against the violence of the Western academic structure and advocate for recognizing diverse temporalities and histories. The study calls for a critical evaluation of how universities perpetuate colonial frameworks and suggests that a practice of refusal is essential for disrupting these dynamics. This video involves acknowledging institutional complicity in systemic inequities and seeking to transform academic practices to include histories of resistance and alternative futures.

The author advocates for both sustaining and dismantling current institutional frameworks, emphasizing the need for systemic changes in higher education that prioritize inclusivity and ethical considerations. Ultimately, it poses the challenge of redefining ethical obligations in academia to address historical and contemporary injustices, calling for awareness of the transgenerational consequences of educational decisions.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Sure! Please provide the video you would like me to summarize, and I'll be happy to help you find the 5 key points.

Export as PDF
It looks like you've included placeholders instead of specific video. Please provide the video you'd like me to analyze for key quotes, and I would be happy to assist you!

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.105 --> 00:02.365
The study aims to explore the concept

00:02.385 --> 00:04.445
of refusal within a particular framework

00:04.445 --> 00:05.925
of temporizing ethics,

00:05.935 --> 00:08.765
especially in secular academia in the global North.

00:09.425 --> 00:11.045
Um, so I try to think

00:11.045 --> 00:13.525
through conventional archeological principles

00:13.525 --> 00:16.605
that frame human actions within a very particular linear

00:17.085 --> 00:19.325
progressive civilizational notion of time.

00:19.785 --> 00:22.045
So these principles perpetuate a colonial

00:22.825 --> 00:25.445
and extractive mindset by monumentalizing

00:26.095 --> 00:30.005
human actions in a certain kind of archive of possibilities.

00:30.165 --> 00:31.245
I name it, validated

00:31.245 --> 00:33.885
by colonial scientific institutional authorities.

00:34.465 --> 00:37.285
So archives not more, not merely repositories

00:37.305 --> 00:39.085
of historical records, right?

00:39.225 --> 00:41.845
But active mechanisms that shape

00:41.845 --> 00:45.005
and regulate what are considered valid, authoritative,

00:45.445 --> 00:48.365
possible, and those impossible, modes

00:48.365 --> 00:50.525
of being in existing within educational

00:50.715 --> 00:51.845
institutional context.

00:52.885 --> 00:56.865
So this research examines the ethical frameworks

00:56.905 --> 00:59.985
and practices prevalent in settle academia, which often aim

01:00.045 --> 01:01.505
to become more just

01:01.645 --> 01:06.425
and equitable, yet in so many cases reinforce redemptive,

01:06.555 --> 01:10.185
messianism and this messianism, you know,

01:10.185 --> 01:12.345
which either more is a supposedly better passed

01:12.685 --> 01:16.385
or the first the resolution of injustice or racism

01:16.725 --> 01:20.585
and sexism and misogyny to some future, right?

01:21.205 --> 01:25.785
And so the context of this study, is really

01:26.585 --> 01:28.945
situated within the contemporary crisis

01:28.965 --> 01:30.505
of systemic oppression, the continuous

01:30.505 --> 01:31.625
immune entire education.

01:32.525 --> 01:33.665
And it's also a part

01:33.785 --> 01:36.065
of this edited collection of essay that Dr.

01:36.655 --> 01:37.825
Michles and I edited.

01:37.845 --> 01:41.305
We invited scholars, brilliant essays from Global South,

01:41.325 --> 01:42.945
global North,

01:43.045 --> 01:45.545
and the title of the book is Working with Years of Refusal

01:45.545 --> 01:47.385
and Decolonization in Higher Education.

01:47.965 --> 01:51.785
Um, and so this collection of essays refusal really not

01:51.785 --> 01:55.225
as an end in itself and not merely as a mode of critique,

01:55.605 --> 01:59.665
but actually as a necessary first step for educators

01:59.725 --> 02:01.185
and students in higher education

02:01.205 --> 02:03.945
to invest in radically different modes of futurity.

02:04.855 --> 02:07.155
So we explore education and,

02:07.575 --> 02:11.555
and how education the students can perhaps invent pedagogies

02:11.775 --> 02:13.835
of refusal that function ethically,

02:13.835 --> 02:16.315
aesthetically effectively.

02:16.345 --> 02:18.595
Politically. We ask things like,

02:18.665 --> 02:20.635
what do pedagogies of refusal look like?

02:20.735 --> 02:22.635
How might Western University sustain

02:22.635 --> 02:25.875
and support refusal rather than discipline it and police it?

02:27.055 --> 02:31.835
So the idea of Al, as an ethical

02:31.835 --> 02:35.675
and political practice is developed, widely.

02:35.865 --> 02:36.915
It's not a new concept.

02:37.895 --> 02:40.995
For example, indigenous thinkers, Audra Simpson,

02:42.085 --> 02:46.435
Wayne Yang, Koler Black feminist thinkers, Tina k

02:47.055 --> 02:50.955
Denise Ferra, the Silva, Sadia Hartman

02:51.615 --> 02:54.555
and Fugitive Thinkers, friends, Fanon Fred Moten,

02:54.775 --> 02:57.115
and who have all in their own ways suggested the Western

02:57.355 --> 02:58.675
University's program is

02:58.675 --> 03:00.205
Conditioned on violence, right?

03:00.235 --> 03:04.285
This violence is a ground of the sense of human, of

03:04.285 --> 03:07.805
what it is to hu to be human as per Soviet winter, right?

03:08.625 --> 03:09.845
The university's mandate.

03:10.665 --> 03:13.965
Um, I think the concept of Western archive is crucial

03:13.965 --> 03:16.285
for understanding how western moral values

03:16.345 --> 03:19.685
and colonial governance have been perpetuated over

03:19.715 --> 03:20.805
time, right?

03:20.905 --> 03:24.405
And so if thinking about universities mandate, I try to show

03:24.405 --> 03:26.765
that thinking about archive, you know, archive,

03:26.785 --> 03:28.805
the word comes from the Greek archon referring

03:28.805 --> 03:31.285
to public office, where official documents were kept in,

03:31.745 --> 03:33.525
you know, underscoring authority and control.

03:33.585 --> 03:36.885
So the Western archive involves, as we know, cataloging,

03:36.885 --> 03:39.565
fostering transparency, emphasizing visibility.

03:39.785 --> 03:42.485
And these are all the kinds of moves that are designed

03:42.485 --> 03:45.765
to preserve and dis disseminate specific narratives in all

03:45.765 --> 03:47.645
the systems that are aligned

03:47.675 --> 03:50.445
with Western ideological frameworks and sensibilities.

03:52.185 --> 03:55.645
So contemporary universities are tasked with preserving

03:55.665 --> 03:58.365
and generating knowledge, promot critical thinking,

03:59.505 --> 04:01.565
and preparing students to engage with the world.

04:01.635 --> 04:04.325
However, I think they often replicate these structures

04:04.345 --> 04:07.645
of the Western archive emphasizing knowledge that aligns

04:08.235 --> 04:11.245
with western frameworks right side while sidelining

04:11.755 --> 04:14.005
non-Western indigenous perspectives.

04:14.105 --> 04:18.045
So in this way, the mandate of universities can be seen

04:18.045 --> 04:20.685
as an a and poor practice of colonial index

04:20.705 --> 04:23.125
and curating, scaling, preserving

04:23.655 --> 04:25.485
authorized narratives and values.

04:26.545 --> 04:29.885
Um, and so then this practice situates all human action

04:29.885 --> 04:31.525
within a fixed framework.

04:32.405 --> 04:33.885
Monumentalizing certain principles

04:33.885 --> 04:36.925
and values izing itself, right?

04:37.745 --> 04:40.965
As always messianic in its ethical answers,

04:41.585 --> 04:43.885
and in in that sense, higher education blocks

04:43.905 --> 04:45.605
and ethics of a world,

04:45.605 --> 04:49.565
otherwise always striving towards a future ideal,

04:49.645 --> 04:53.125
deferred while, you know, overlooking the past

04:53.265 --> 04:56.765
and the present beyond what is visible and intelligible.

04:57.445 --> 04:59.045
I think it really comes down to

04:59.045 --> 05:01.845
that colonial demand on a temporal ethics.

05:01.945 --> 05:05.325
And that lies in perpetuating these rigid static notions

05:05.325 --> 05:08.605
of time that support colonial powers, that are structures

05:08.605 --> 05:10.845
that are, they're in calculated and into the system.

05:10.905 --> 05:13.325
So including its ex theological mandates, right?

05:13.345 --> 05:17.125
So eight temporal ethics treats ethical principles

05:17.185 --> 05:18.565
as timeless and universal.

05:18.565 --> 05:20.565
And this epistemic violence silences

05:20.565 --> 05:22.805
and invalidates, as sort

05:22.805 --> 05:25.445
of more pl temporal life worlds,

05:25.825 --> 05:28.205
and ethics that have always persisted through

05:28.225 --> 05:30.045
and resisted European imperial

05:30.045 --> 05:34.445
and settler colonial homo homogenizing desires to know,

05:34.505 --> 05:38.725
to consume and subsume all these various possible

05:39.405 --> 05:43.485
w worlds into one right one and saying,

05:44.225 --> 05:46.885
and so I think higher education's focused on these fixed

05:46.885 --> 05:49.645
and poor norms results in the continuous reenactment

05:49.645 --> 05:53.285
of white modernity, reinforcing racialized gender

05:53.285 --> 05:56.765
and heteronormative hierarchies, as I think the, the,

05:56.765 --> 05:58.885
The mandate really would be for high education

05:58.905 --> 06:00.925
to recognize its role and complicity.

06:01.225 --> 06:05.325
We know it's universities are working with this notion.

06:05.905 --> 06:08.965
Um, but I think for, for that to be really,

06:09.945 --> 06:13.885
not productive, but meaningful, I think, looking at

06:14.225 --> 06:17.085
how university perpetuates the poor disparities

06:17.615 --> 06:20.885
would also have to be looked at because, and,

06:20.945 --> 06:24.445
and in that sense, the practice of refusal is essential,

06:24.445 --> 06:27.325
because it challenges proprietary fund foundations

06:27.345 --> 06:28.405
of cultural, economic

06:28.425 --> 06:29.565
and political accumulation

06:29.565 --> 06:31.445
of knowledge within a higher education.

06:32.345 --> 06:36.885
Um, and so this involves disengaging from the, from systems

06:36.955 --> 06:38.205
that harness and deploy

06:38.205 --> 06:40.725
and poor capital to, to, to continue

06:40.745 --> 06:43.165
to perpetuate colonial dominance.

06:44.105 --> 06:47.245
Um, and so understand for researchers and students

06:47.385 --> 06:50.205
and administration, understanding this share

06:50.205 --> 06:51.565
of violence would be crucial

06:51.675 --> 06:54.125
because it, it highlights the importance

06:54.125 --> 06:57.485
of rupturing academic practices and curricula,

06:57.505 --> 07:01.565
and developing a sort of capacity to, to respond with care,

07:02.265 --> 07:04.405
to diverse temporalities

07:04.745 --> 07:06.725
and it within ethical frameworks.

07:06.985 --> 07:09.525
So we know, for example, Fred Moten calls

07:09.585 --> 07:13.725
for walking out university, walking out with the students

07:13.795 --> 07:15.045
with the under commons.

07:15.465 --> 07:18.445
So basically, trying to think

07:18.915 --> 07:21.485
through an inclusive just dis junction.

07:21.665 --> 07:24.605
So both, right? Maybe surviving university,

07:24.695 --> 07:29.345
sustaining university would be, you know, the, it's, it's

07:29.545 --> 07:31.625
what is desired right now.

07:31.625 --> 07:35.505
We still see. But then on the other hand, the idea would be

07:35.525 --> 07:38.585
how to let it die and how to walk out

07:38.685 --> 07:41.745
and not systemically speaking, not individually speaking

07:41.925 --> 07:43.025
for teachers and, and

07:43.165 --> 07:45.865
for professors in their own classrooms would be

07:47.815 --> 07:49.155
to walk out, right?

07:49.215 --> 07:50.755
And so, not either or,

07:51.015 --> 07:53.635
but kind of trying to think how we can work with both.

07:53.705 --> 07:56.315
That would be a, that would be, I think the precondition

07:56.315 --> 07:59.035
before we can start thinking about refusal in terms

07:59.035 --> 08:01.635
of pers individual, practices

08:01.655 --> 08:02.995
for, for teachers and students.

08:03.855 --> 08:05.595
Um, and then, right?

08:06.055 --> 08:08.155
So I think it has to start systemically.

08:08.625 --> 08:10.835
Well, with that, I really refer to the sort

08:10.835 --> 08:13.835
of au autopoietic nature of university, right?

08:13.835 --> 08:16.235
This means, I mean, it's self-sustaining

08:16.785 --> 08:18.315
through constant repetition

08:18.375 --> 08:20.275
and replication of its foundational

08:20.275 --> 08:21.755
principles and practices, right?

08:21.975 --> 08:24.315
So even though the time is linear, right?

08:24.575 --> 08:28.195
It, it's functions that operationalizes this, this notion

08:28.195 --> 08:32.195
of repetition of the same, reproducing conditions

08:32.195 --> 08:35.595
that define, our current predicament existence

08:35.595 --> 08:40.235
to maintaining university as, as, as an, as a system,

08:40.255 --> 08:42.635
as a living system, as an organism, even.

08:43.295 --> 08:45.155
So, in, in

08:45.155 --> 08:48.195
that high education perpetuate specific regimes, regimes

08:48.195 --> 08:49.875
of bio and a-political power

08:49.875 --> 08:52.435
through its pedagogical practices,

08:52.435 --> 08:54.875
they're embedded in spatial

08:54.945 --> 08:57.985
Temporal framework rooted in imperial histories, right?

08:58.005 --> 08:59.305
We know this. So, so these,

08:59.725 --> 09:02.185
the systems reliance on established norms

09:02.185 --> 09:04.185
that are being replicated and repeated

09:04.605 --> 09:08.585
and methodologies ensures that continually, that,

09:08.585 --> 09:09.825
that these ideologies

09:09.825 --> 09:13.065
and structures are continually replicated, right?

09:13.445 --> 09:14.825
And that normalizes

09:14.885 --> 09:19.305
and individualizes, counter histories and,

09:19.725 --> 09:22.665
and, and, and recursive nature of some practices.

09:23.565 --> 09:25.665
So for instance, the way we teach, assess, measure,

09:25.665 --> 09:28.905
knowledge, emphasize progress, visibility, no ability,

09:29.085 --> 09:32.905
and these notions perpetuate, through classification

09:33.125 --> 09:34.705
and assessment and measurement

09:35.205 --> 09:38.905
and, you know, they're reinforcing existing, status quo

09:39.645 --> 09:42.065
by continuously reproducing these established framework.

09:43.195 --> 09:46.105
University reinforces the same power dynamics

09:46.325 --> 09:49.305
and cultural narratives that have been s such sanctioned

09:49.925 --> 09:53.145
and deemed the only possible way of being, right?

09:53.205 --> 09:55.625
And that's what makes it challenging to disrupt

09:55.645 --> 09:57.585
or transform the system, the system,

09:57.615 --> 10:01.225
because any deviation is met with resistance

10:01.365 --> 10:04.625
or is quickly assimilated back into the existing structure.

10:05.185 --> 10:08.065
T the portal desire is deeply embedded in particular style

10:08.245 --> 10:09.905
styles of reading and writing.

10:10.295 --> 10:14.265
When we think, refusal in higher education,

10:14.445 --> 10:17.105
and it's enclosed by a cannon of literary, philosophical

10:17.165 --> 10:18.225
and scientific texts

10:18.245 --> 10:22.545
and images that privilege, this classic heroic narrative,

10:22.885 --> 10:27.825
arc of growth, right, of movement of, of, capacity

10:28.165 --> 10:31.625
and potentiality, change overcoming, right?

10:31.925 --> 10:34.825
And so in the field of education, this story is,

10:35.165 --> 10:38.065
is scientifically naturalized fiction grounded in

10:38.265 --> 10:40.825
progressive patriarchal racist narratives

10:40.825 --> 10:42.065
of telling time as arrow.

10:42.725 --> 10:46.745
And so how then do we provoke students to imagine other

10:47.265 --> 10:49.025
densities and dimensions of existence

10:49.095 --> 10:52.585
outside the discomfort, discomfort of this very particular

10:53.455 --> 10:56.665
phallic, root bound, extractive unidirectional,

10:57.365 --> 11:00.185
and very finite spatial temporal point of view.

11:00.905 --> 11:03.025
I think refusing eight temporal ethics,

11:03.815 --> 11:05.025
that would be the stake.

11:05.085 --> 11:07.745
It because it challenges the foundations upon which

11:07.745 --> 11:09.425
educational institutions are built.

11:10.005 --> 11:14.625
Um, because ruling out certain educational features is out

11:14.625 --> 11:18.345
of bounds or impossible, sustains assumptions

11:18.345 --> 11:19.945
that privilege specific narratives

11:19.945 --> 11:21.385
and power structures, right?

11:22.205 --> 11:25.585
And the practice excludes alternative ways of, of learning.

11:26.405 --> 11:28.425
Um, and other forms of,

11:28.605 --> 11:31.585
of social injustice is basically just if you,

11:31.685 --> 11:34.905
if you continue to sanction narratives through the archive,

11:34.905 --> 11:38.465
through repeating this ic sustaining of this huge,

11:38.465 --> 11:41.825
massive organism that is university, then you also sanction

11:42.215 --> 11:44.185
what we can imagine future to be.

11:44.605 --> 11:47.105
So in high education, particularly in the global north

11:47.105 --> 11:50.795
where I'm right now, the, the,

11:50.815 --> 11:52.755
the aim is, we know it still

11:52.755 --> 11:55.885
Focuses on, on enabling those privileged

11:55.885 --> 11:56.965
few to lead a good life.

11:57.385 --> 12:00.005
But the definition of a good life serves the interest of

12:00.595 --> 12:03.725
some, and it's intertwined with, with, you know,

12:03.725 --> 12:05.365
with e economy, politics

12:05.465 --> 12:08.205
and fueling cycles of extraction and deferral.

12:08.205 --> 12:12.645
And so a temporal ethics, you know what it,

12:12.665 --> 12:14.525
it refers to principles that remain fixed,

12:14.845 --> 12:15.965
ignoring the dynamic nature

12:15.965 --> 12:17.605
of human society and environment.

12:18.145 --> 12:21.125
And these principles preserve a fixed past

12:21.985 --> 12:25.725
and project a controlled continued future from within

12:25.785 --> 12:28.565
itself, maintaining existing desires we have in

12:29.095 --> 12:32.085
power structures, you know, fossil fuel, all of

12:32.115 --> 12:35.245
what is currently, you know, sustaining us

12:35.425 --> 12:36.925
and blocking real consideration

12:36.925 --> 12:39.045
of alternative futures addressing elo

12:39.365 --> 12:40.725
ecological social crisis.

12:41.345 --> 12:44.605
So refusing a temporal ethics would mean challenging these

12:44.605 --> 12:47.565
risks, principle and systemic practices that sustain them.

12:48.185 --> 12:51.005
So, you know, they would require being open to,

12:51.585 --> 12:54.885
to acknowledge and assisting on the existence of excess.

12:55.545 --> 12:59.765
And, you know, impossibles that have always persisted,

12:59.785 --> 13:04.445
but haven't been always deemed, in excess,

13:04.665 --> 13:05.725
so not sanctioned.

13:06.345 --> 13:09.965
Um, so in the excess of authorized archive,

13:09.965 --> 13:13.445
this ethical praxis of time, trans trespassing almost,

13:13.505 --> 13:16.725
if you wish, reinvents and reframes rights, freedoms

13:16.725 --> 13:19.565
and responsibilities across, across, past,

13:19.565 --> 13:20.925
present, and future, right?

13:21.145 --> 13:25.045
It rup it would rupture academic archive of possibility.

13:25.285 --> 13:28.405
'cause as long as you, as you discipline the archive,

13:28.545 --> 13:31.085
you sanction what we can imagine is possible

13:31.105 --> 13:33.125
and by implication, impossible, right?

13:33.225 --> 13:37.405
So, the idea would be to disengage also morality

13:37.585 --> 13:38.645
or sentimentality

13:39.345 --> 13:41.525
or sensibilities that have been disciplined

13:41.525 --> 13:46.245
through the system from its messianic deferral,

13:46.425 --> 13:49.325
of justice to some distant future.

13:49.885 --> 13:52.885
Hmm. So when the grammar of ethical obligations

13:52.985 --> 13:56.205
and possibilities and responsibilities of academic research

13:56.205 --> 13:57.245
and teaching and learning

13:57.305 --> 14:01.765
and funding becomes temporized across historic timelines,

14:01.795 --> 14:06.085
then paying debt for coloniality of past

14:06.105 --> 14:08.765
and future consequences of decisions made

14:09.225 --> 14:12.845
and those not made will have carried legal way today.

14:12.845 --> 14:14.925
Right? And I think this is very important

14:15.115 --> 14:19.085
because if the task of temporizing ethics today in the world

14:19.105 --> 14:22.845
of everyday and ongoing extinction of human

14:22.865 --> 14:24.325
and non-human life worlds

14:24.705 --> 14:28.125
and all the violence, is really in answering

14:28.345 --> 14:31.005
for transgenerational, racial gendered climate,

14:31.005 --> 14:33.365
environmental violence, sub education.

14:34.065 --> 14:37.965
Um, and so the individual high education,

14:38.985 --> 14:43.885
institutions locally, we'll have to wager,

14:44.315 --> 14:48.085
that inclusive disjunction, I mentioned death and endurance,

14:49.145 --> 14:51.485
but always in response to the local mid view

14:51.785 --> 14:53.005
and the local histories

14:53.145 --> 14:56.325
and the local, demands from, from

14:56.945 --> 14:59.445
the community relations that they built.

"Challenging Colonial Narratives: The Role of Refusal in Reimagining Higher Education within Temporizing Ethics"

00:00:00 - The study aims to explore the concept of refusal within a particular framework of temporizing ethics, especially in secular academia in the global North. so I try to think through conventional archeological principles that frame human actions within a very particular linear progressive civilizational notion of time. So these principles perpetuate a colonial and extractive mindset by monumentalizing human actions in a certain kind of archive of possibilities. I name it, validated by colonial scientific institutional authorities. So archives not more, not merely repositories of historical records, right? But active mechanisms that shape
00:00:45 - possible, and those impossible, modes of being in existing within educational institutional context. So this research examines the ethical frameworks and practices prevalent in settle academia, which often aim to become more just and equitable, yet in so many cases reinforce redemptive, messianism and this messianism, you know, which either more is a supposedly better passed or the first the resolution of injustice or racism and sexism and misogyny to some future, right? And so the context of this study, is really
00:01:28 - of systemic oppression, the continuous immune entire education. And it's also a part of this edited collection of essay that Dr. Michles and I edited. We invited scholars, brilliant essays from Global South, global North, and the title of the book is Working with Years of Refusal and Decolonization in Higher Education. and so this collection of essays refusal really not as an end in itself and not merely as a mode of critique, but actually as a necessary first step for educators and students in higher education to invest in radically different modes of futurity. So we explore education and,
00:02:11 - of refusal that function ethically, aesthetically effectively. Politically. We ask things like, what do pedagogies of refusal look like? How might Western University sustain and support refusal rather than discipline it and police it? So the idea of Al, as an ethical and political practice is developed, widely. It's not a new concept. For example, indigenous thinkers, Audra Simpson, Wayne Yang, Koler Black feminist thinkers, Tina k Denise Ferra, the Silva, Sadia Hartman
00:02:54 - and who have all in their own ways suggested the Western University's program is Conditioned on violence, right? This violence is a ground of the sense of human, of what it is to hu to be human as per Soviet winter, right? The university's mandate. I think the concept of Western archive is crucial for understanding how western moral values and colonial governance have been perpetuated over time, right? And so if thinking about universities mandate, I try to show that thinking about archive, you know, archive, the word comes from the Greek archon referring to public office, where official documents were kept in,
00:03:33 - So the Western archive involves, as we know, cataloging, fostering transparency, emphasizing visibility. And these are all the kinds of moves that are designed to preserve and dis disseminate specific narratives in all the systems that are aligned with Western ideological frameworks and sensibilities. So contemporary universities are tasked with preserving and generating knowledge, promot critical thinking, and preparing students to engage with the world. However, I think they often replicate these structures of the Western archive emphasizing knowledge that aligns with western frameworks right side while sidelining

"Challenging Colonial Constructs: The Role of Refusal in Higher Education and the Quest for Ethical Futures"

00:04:14 - So in this way, the mandate of universities can be seen as an a and poor practice of colonial index and curating, scaling, preserving authorized narratives and values. and so then this practice situates all human action within a fixed framework. Monumentalizing certain principles and values izing itself, right? As always messianic in its ethical answers, and in in that sense, higher education blocks and ethics of a world, otherwise always striving towards a future ideal, deferred while, you know, overlooking the past
00:04:57 - I think it really comes down to that colonial demand on a temporal ethics. And that lies in perpetuating these rigid static notions of time that support colonial powers, that are structures that are, they're in calculated and into the system. So including its ex theological mandates, right? So eight temporal ethics treats ethical principles as timeless and universal. And this epistemic violence silences and invalidates, as sort of more pl temporal life worlds, and ethics that have always persisted through and resisted European imperial and settler colonial homo homogenizing desires to know,
00:05:39 - w worlds into one right one and saying, and so I think higher education's focused on these fixed and poor norms results in the continuous reenactment of white modernity, reinforcing racialized gender and heteronormative hierarchies, as I think the, the, The mandate really would be for high education to recognize its role and complicity. We know it's universities are working with this notion. but I think for, for that to be really, not productive, but meaningful, I think, looking at how university perpetuates the poor disparities
00:06:20 - and in that sense, the practice of refusal is essential, because it challenges proprietary fund foundations of cultural, economic and political accumulation of knowledge within a higher education. and so this involves disengaging from the, from systems that harness and deploy and poor capital to, to, to continue to perpetuate colonial dominance. and so understand for researchers and students and administration, understanding this share of violence would be crucial because it, it highlights the importance of rupturing academic practices and curricula, and developing a sort of capacity to, to respond with care,
00:07:04 - and it within ethical frameworks. So we know, for example, Fred Moten calls for walking out university, walking out with the students with the under commons. So basically, trying to think through an inclusive just dis junction. So both, right? Maybe surviving university, sustaining university would be, you know, the, it's, it's what is desired right now. We still see. But then on the other hand, the idea would be how to let it die and how to walk out and not systemically speaking, not individually speaking for teachers and, and
00:07:47 - to walk out, right? And so, not either or, but kind of trying to think how we can work with both. That would be a, that would be, I think the precondition before we can start thinking about refusal in terms of pers individual, practices for, for teachers and students. and then, right? So I think it has to start systemically. Well, with that, I really refer to the sort of au autopoietic nature of university, right? This means, I mean, it's self-sustaining through constant repetition and replication of its foundational principles and practices, right? So even though the time is linear, right?

"Repetition and Resistance: The Challenges of Transforming Pedagogical Practices in Higher Education"

00:08:28 - of repetition of the same, reproducing conditions that define, our current predicament existence to maintaining university as, as, as an, as a system, as a living system, as an organism, even. So, in, in that high education perpetuate specific regimes, regimes of bio and a-political power through its pedagogical practices, they're embedded in spatial Temporal framework rooted in imperial histories, right? We know this. So, so these, the systems reliance on established norms that are being replicated and repeated
00:09:08 - that these ideologies and structures are continually replicated, right? And that normalizes and individualizes, counter histories and, and, and, and recursive nature of some practices. So for instance, the way we teach, assess, measure, knowledge, emphasize progress, visibility, no ability, and these notions perpetuate, through classification and assessment and measurement and, you know, they're reinforcing existing, status quo by continuously reproducing these established framework. University reinforces the same power dynamics
00:09:49 - and deemed the only possible way of being, right? And that's what makes it challenging to disrupt or transform the system, the system, because any deviation is met with resistance or is quickly assimilated back into the existing structure. T the portal desire is deeply embedded in particular style styles of reading and writing. When we think, refusal in higher education, and it's enclosed by a cannon of literary, philosophical and scientific texts and images that privilege, this classic heroic narrative, arc of growth, right, of movement of, of, capacity
00:10:31 - And so in the field of education, this story is, is scientifically naturalized fiction grounded in progressive patriarchal racist narratives of telling time as arrow. And so how then do we provoke students to imagine other densities and dimensions of existence outside the discomfort, discomfort of this very particular phallic, root bound, extractive unidirectional, and very finite spatial temporal point of view. I think refusing eight temporal ethics, that would be the stake. It because it challenges the foundations upon which educational institutions are built.
00:11:14 - of bounds or impossible, sustains assumptions that privilege specific narratives and power structures, right? And the practice excludes alternative ways of, of learning. and other forms of, of social injustice is basically just if you, if you continue to sanction narratives through the archive, through repeating this ic sustaining of this huge, massive organism that is university, then you also sanction what we can imagine future to be. So in high education, particularly in the global north where I'm right now, the, the,
00:11:52 - Focuses on, on enabling those privileged few to lead a good life. But the definition of a good life serves the interest of some, and it's intertwined with, with, you know, with e economy, politics and fueling cycles of extraction and deferral. And so a temporal ethics, you know what it, it refers to principles that remain fixed, ignoring the dynamic nature of human society and environment. And these principles preserve a fixed past and project a controlled continued future from within itself, maintaining existing desires we have in power structures, you know, fossil fuel, all of

"Challenging Temporal Ethics: A Call for Acknowledgment of Excess and Alternative Futures in Higher Education"

00:12:35 - and blocking real consideration of alternative futures addressing elo ecological social crisis. So refusing a temporal ethics would mean challenging these risks, principle and systemic practices that sustain them. So, you know, they would require being open to, to acknowledge and assisting on the existence of excess. And, you know, impossibles that have always persisted, but haven't been always deemed, in excess, so not sanctioned. so in the excess of authorized archive, this ethical praxis of time, trans trespassing almost,
00:13:16 - and responsibilities across, across, past, present, and future, right? It rup it would rupture academic archive of possibility. 'cause as long as you, as you discipline the archive, you sanction what we can imagine is possible and by implication, impossible, right? So, the idea would be to disengage also morality or sentimentality or sensibilities that have been disciplined through the system from its messianic deferral, of justice to some distant future. Hmm. So when the grammar of ethical obligations and possibilities and responsibilities of academic research
00:13:57 - and funding becomes temporized across historic timelines, then paying debt for coloniality of past and future consequences of decisions made and those not made will have carried legal way today. Right? And I think this is very important because if the task of temporizing ethics today in the world of everyday and ongoing extinction of human and non-human life worlds and all the violence, is really in answering for transgenerational, racial gendered climate, environmental violence, sub education. and so the individual high education,
00:14:56 - that inclusive disjunction, I mentioned death and endurance, but always in response to the local mid view and the local histories and the local, demands from, from the community relations that they built.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Research

Policy

Analysis

Data

Originals

Explainers

Podcasts

Faculti

New on Faculti

Idea Explorer

Definition

News Context

Critical Questions and Answers

Research Summaries

Refusing Archives of Possibility

Media Literacy Toolkit

Critical Questions to Consider ▼

Bias and Perspective Awareness ▼

Further Reading ▼