Confronting Epistemic Erasures: decolonising research, fostering resistances and reimagining alternative partnerships
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This collection introduces and develops the concept of Epistemic Erasure to describe the processes through which the knowledge systems of marginalised communities are rendered invisible, and how these processes are being resisted. Building on but moving beyond established frameworks such as epistemic injustice, epistemic violence, and epistemicide, Epistemic Erasure foregrounds the paradox that total erasure is impossible, as marginalised epistemologies persist and resist. This theoretical move shifts the focus from documenting epistemological harm to examining the decolonial mobilisations, epistemic resistances, and alternative partnerships that emerge in the wake of erasure. Drawing from cases across Indigenous territories, refugee communities, postcolonial urban spaces, cinema, social movements, queer groups, sites of armed conflict, and universities, the contributions interrogate how diverse political formations – including ostensibly liberatory ones – determine what is recognised as legitimate knowledge in these specific contexts. They further elucidate the strategies through which communities reclaim, preserve, and reconfigure their epistemic worlds against erasure. By framing Epistemic Erasure as a site of ongoing contestation rather than an endpoint , the SI illuminates possibilities for forging solidarities, unsettling colonial hierarchies, and envisioning futures grounded in decolonial epistemologies.
Source: Third World Quarterly
Author: Yafa El Masri
Institution: University of East Anglia
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7082051082