This week’s readings explore and highlight the different ways institutions contribute to the issues surrounding power and knowledge. Boatema Boateng states that naming is an epistemological act that is closely related to the oppression different knowledges create in regards to African women’s subjectivity. The author discusses how knowledge production was used in the 18th and 19th century to justify the dehumanization and sexual exploitation of African women. Knowledge produces harmful and constricting names surrounding African women that label them as Third World Woman. Western knowledge created binaries such as civilized vs. barbaric and modern vs. traditional. This categorized African women as the “other” which is extremely relevant to how they are presented in academic knowledge.
It is crucial to understand how epistemic ignorance works in institutions of academia to continue to perpetuate the “other”. Rauna Kuokkanen highlights how dominant Western discourse works against understanding and recognizing the epistemic ignorance that takes place in post secondary education. For example, Indigenous students are expected to transition over and learn to understand the academic culture. Schools like UBC must move away from knowledge about knowing the “other” and must make space to address the ignorance and problematic nature that comes alongside knowing the “other” (Kuokkanen, 2008). Instead of presenting itself as a university that understands the needs of Indigenous students and the harms of colonization it must move towards forming a more respectful scholarship, take responsibility for its ignorance and more importantly, act upon it (Kuokkanen, 2008).
