top of page

Conference Information

Thinking through race, coloniality and Indigeneity, critical conversations regarding the ongoing violence around us are necessary. Recently, we have witnessed the capitalization and commodification of Anti-Racism Education, and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. These have become veneers of racial justice and progressive action, mere distractions to evade racial accountability. We recognize the ongoing crimes of settlers against Indigenous, Black and racialized humanity.[1] How do we engage in critical anti-colonial theorizing as social agents and creative resistors inhabiting our multiple ways of Being and being seen? The prevailing problem of coloniality lies in the valuing
and devaluing of different lives. Expectations of
Whiteness— conformity, policing, surveillance,
and punishment—continue to exact a heavy toll
on the non-White majority. Conflating the jargon
of diversity with racial justice ensures that the
racial injustice remains intact. Clearly, the project
of dismantling White supremacy calls on us to
build new futures, not just to live in the present.

 

In spite of the proliferation of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), the blatant disregard for lives that are not White has become more evident. We cannot be oblivious to how Black, Brown and Indigenous tragedy has been normalized in the global imagination, including global media. International demonstrations of solidarity to White suffering have not been extended to Black, Indigenous and racialized communities’ tragedy. Black and Indigenous deaths are normalized, we have become desensitized to it. Furthermore, we are now seeing the unleashing of calculated endeavors to distract from this violence, often through misguided cries against ‘wokenism.’ As Collinson notes, “misinformation, conspiracy theories, lies, culture wars, and barely concealed racism dominate” public discourse and Conservative politics[2].  Rather than addressing power and privilege, these are now seen as avenues for political power with histrionics and viral media moments becoming “vicious political play for base voters”[3].  

                                                        There is a muzzling of anti-racist discourse: a desire to
                                                        maintain a ‘colour-blind’ world and the race-coloniality
                                                        tandem. In North America, particularly — though not
                                                        exclusively—in the U.S., the twin problems of settler
                                                        colonial retrenchment and Conservative backlash through
                                                        legislation serve as a vicious retaliation to critical race
                                                        theory, the teaching of Black History, and calls for a
                                                        ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights.’ White fear, anger, grievances,
                                                        bigotry, and victimhood are visualized in ways that perceive these bodies as bearing the brunt of racism. We must call out this White supremacist logic and examine how it engenders settler consciousness. We must amplify our voices to make it clear: the onus is on them to identify and resolve their inaction, which is deeply rooted in incessant denial.

 

Our intellectual praxis must operate on the offensive, not only to meet people where they are, but to change the tenor of conversations and direction of our political actions. When we stay silent in the face of White supremacy, vitriol hate wins and we are all demeaned by this. When we target Black, Indigenous and racialized groups through racial tropes, we end up hating and diminishing ourselves. The teaching of race, [trans]gender, sexuality, disability, slavery,
and history is not indoctrination, but rather
good, solid critical teaching that every
learner deserves. If nothing else, the 

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

In doing so, we can recognize how Reconciliation, for instance, is no substitute for restitutions for colonial harm and past wrongs. Reconciliation cannot be attained with “empty promises and mandates that ultimately serve to maintain colonial power and colonial futurity”[4]. We must reveal how reconciliatory rhetoric cloaks reconfigurations of settler violence and works to “cover the tracks” of ongoing coloniality [5] .

 

 

[1] Grande, S. (2016). Refusing the University. In E. Tuck & K.W. Yang (Eds.), Toward What Justice? (47–65). Routledge.

[2] Collinson, S. (6 April 2022). Obama and Romney are back, and show how American politics have changed for the worse. CNN.

[3] Collinson, S (2022), as above.

[4] Dhaliwal, K. (2022). Continued Settler Violence & Educational Sites: (Re)conciliation? Lessons for Decolonial Futurity. Unpublished paper. OISE, UT. Course 3914H

[5] Dhaliwal, K.(2022). Continued Settler Violence & Educational Sites: (Re) conciliation? Lessons for Decolonial Futurity. Unpublished paper. OISE, UT. Course 3914H

Daigle, M. (2019). The spectacle of reconciliation: On (the) unsettling responsibilities to Indigenous Peoples in the Academy. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 37(4), 703–721.

Gaudry, A., and Lorenz, D. E. (2018). Decolonization for the Masses? Grappling With Indigenous Content Requirements in the Changing Canadian Post-Secondary Environment. In. L. T. Smith, E. Tuck, and K. W. Yang (Eds.). Indigenous and Decolonizing Studies in Education: Mapping the Long View (pp. 159-174). New York: Routledge.

Veracini, L. (2011). Introducing, Settler Colonial Studies. Settler Colonial Studies, 1(1), 1-12.

The logo of the Idle No More movemement leads to the home page for Idle No More

Learn about Idle No More

Graffiti

present teaches us that things will only get worse amid our inaction and fear to confront by ‘speaking out and speaking up.’ In solidarity with one another, we must sharpen our intellectual arsenals for effective political action, and to change our political and social landscapes.

Image by Julian Myles

"Compartir vs. Competir" - Share vs. Compete

 Visit the Artist on Instagram: @elreydelaruina

'Speaking Out and Speaking Up' in Fugitive Spaces: Fascism Resurgence, Logics of Dehumanization and Anti-Colonial Praxis- Toronto, Nov 9-11, 2023

This Conference argues that the ‘de/anti-colonial space’ must also be a ‘fugitive space:’[1] a site of resistance where work, study, play, and activism all intertwine. In particular, the school/university must be a site for radical and speculative imaginaries: a place “to be in, but not of”.[2] Thus, within these spaces, we must cultivate a politics of ‘fleeing from without leaving:’ fleeing from carceral logics, but without leaving the possibilities to create critical spaces within which we can work to subvert and transform.[3]

 

Our educational spaces also need to embrace the “Indigenous elsewheres”[4] which encourage us to ‘imagine and re-imagine new pathways of resistance and resurgences,’ centring humility, generosity, appreciation, acknowledgement, validation, ethics, accountability, and responsibility.[5] The possibilities offered by such ‘Indigenous elsewheres’ enable us to pursue and actualize learning and education as processes towards becoming Human, developing spiritual connections, and living with/in communities of learners - and all are informed by our shared responsibilities and the expectations of our Elders and Ancestors.[6] This represents a shift from binary oppositions to mutual reciprocities, where knowledge is also understood as intuitive, subjective, and embodied in Nature/Land.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​
 

 

while becoming generative, creating something anew through our radical and speculative imaginaries.

 

We cannot become ‘products’ of our institutions as “intellectual imposters”[10] where we continuously measure our worth by colonial standards and succumb to their neoliberal ventures, but rather, we must seek to become products of our own decolonization and resistances. We must continually search for “Suahunu,” the “trialectic space:”[11] the body, mind, soul/spirit interface that embraces the ‘sacredness’ of intellectual activity, specifically with regards to learning, work, education, amusement and Life.

​

​

​

​

​

[1] Harney, S, & Moten, F. (2013) The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. Wivenhoe: Minor Compositions. New York.

[2] Moten, F & Harney, S. (2004). The University and the Undercommons: Seven Theses. Social Text, 22(2), 101-115.

[3]Coghlan, Catherine. 2022. Secret Spaces of Freedom: Re-humanization through Marronage. Unpublished paper, SJE 1921: Principles of Anti-Racism Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

Harney, S, & Moten, F. (2013) The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. Wivenhoe: Minor Compositions. New York.

[4] Grande, S., & McCarty, T. L. (2018). Indigenous Elsewheres: Refusal and re-membering in education research, policy, and praxis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 31(3),165-167.

[5] Escobar, A. (2018). Pluriversal politics. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

[6] Garlow, G. 2022. Refusal, Resurgence and the Politics of Creating Shared Worlds: Friendship Centres. Unpublished paper, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

[7] Coghlan, C. (2022). Secret Spaces of Freedom: Re-humanization through Marronage. Unpublished paper, SJE 1921: Principles of Anti-Racism Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

[8] King, L. T., J. Navarro, and A. Smith (2020). Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness. Durham, N.C: Duke University Press

[9] Simpson, L. (2017). As We have always done: Indigenous freedom through radical resistance. University of Minnesota Press.

[10] Nyamnjoh, F. (2012). “Potted Plants in Greenhouses’: A Critical reflection on the Resilience of Colonial Education in Africa.”  Journal of Asian and African Studies. 1-26

[11] Dei, G. J. S. (2012). " Suahunu," the Trialectic Space. Journal of Black Studies, 823-846.

We build communities one day at a time and we are called upon to become “prophets of what could be” [7] - that is, to imagine ‘otherwise worlds’[8] in hopes of an “Other World.” We are simultaneously “living a new present,”[9] and building a new future. It is not an either/or—we can work with the past, while also, in the Fanonian sense, not allowing the past to imprison us. We must continually reframe our ‘politics of refusal’ as disruption, divestment, resistance- strategies to work around, within, and outside of our institutions

bottom of page