Epistemic Decentering: Toward a More Equitable Pedagogy

Abstract

To date, most post- and decolonial responses to inequality in cultural and intellectual institutions have focused on regaining control over “theory” and epistemology. Alexander’s reflection urges us to expand the boundaries of the battleground. Diversifying content is important. But that will not do the trick if it is not accompanied by a range of other shifts in how we engage with these materials and with one another—in the institutions where we study and work, and in the disciplinary infrastructures that organize our work. To make more meaningful progress toward intellectual and cultural equality, we need to decenter how we listen, smell, feel, and touch as well as how we see. We need to decenter our pedagogical and scholarly relationships. This article lays out why that urgently matters and offer concrete suggestions for moving forward.