Friday, January 20, 10-11am (Montreal time, EST)
Friday, January 20, 10-11 am (Montreal time, EST)

Abstract

Wiredu’s conceptual decolonization: a slightly ‘radical’ reading

Wiredu’s conceptual decolonization has received attention among philosophers thinking about
the topic of decolonization. Defenders of Wiredu’s conceptual decolonization foreground the
method of critical reflection, which they take to be the central feature of his conceptual
decolonization and emphasise Wiredu’s point that this method is to be applied equally to African
indigenous thought and foreign Western thought. Importantly, this method, at the very least,
staves off the complete rejection of foreign conceptual resources and is thus seen as a more
moderate way of decolonizing philosophy. In this paper, I present a slightly ‘radical’ reading of
Wiredu’s conceptual decolonization that underlines the primacy of his concern with reversing the
effects of colonialism in African philosophy in an attempt to illustrate that his decolonizing
project is not merely about critical reflection as typically practiced in Western philosophy. I
suggest that centring the method of critical reflection in Wiredu’s conceptual decolonization
while neglecting the significance of the rationale and broader aims of his proposed project begs
the question why the project should bear the name ‘decolonization’, and risks obscuring the
distinctiveness of Wiredu’s contribution to philosophy through this project.

Short bio
Lerato Posholi holds an MA in Philosophy and a PhD in Education from the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow on the SNSF project
“Reversing the gaze: Towards Post-Comparative Area Studies” at the Institute for European
Global Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland. Her PhD research looked at the relationship
between knowledge and power in the context of curriculum theory. Her current research broadly
looks at the politics of global knowledge production through social epistemology and decolonial
theory. She also has a growing interest in the field of conceptual engineering. She currently
teaches an MA course on “Eurocentrism, Global Debates and Methodology” at the University of
Basel. Before moving to Switzerland, she was a junior lecturer in the philosophy department at
the University of the Witwatersrand and an online philosophy tutor at the University of South
Africa.

Friday, February 3, 12-1 pm (Montreal time, EST)
Friday, 3 February, 12-1 pm (Montreal time, EST)

Abstract
In this presentation, I will combine both Kyle Whyte’s (2021) insights about
epistemologies of crisis and Naomi Klein’s (2007) remarks about disaster capitalism with
Michel Foucault’s approach to inquiry in order to extend an argument that I previously
advanced according to which the subfield of bioethics is an instrument and mechanism
of biopower’s neoliberal eugenics. I will motivate my argument in this presentation by
introducing the term disaster ableism to refer to strategies and practices that produce,
exploit, and aggravate perceived and actual economic, political, environmental, and
social disasters and crises in ways that advance ableist agendas and eugenic goals. One
of my central aims is to illuminate the ways in which strategies and practices of disaster
ableism that various Canadian bioethicists, law professors, feminist philosophers, and
politicians have produced during the COVID-19 pandemic in particular throw into relief
how the neoliberal eugenics at the heart of bioethics is an integral component of
colonialism.

BIO
Shelley Lynn Tremain holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and has taught in Canada, the
United States, and Australia. She publishes on a range of topics, including philosophy of
disability, Michel Foucault, feminist philosophy, ableism in philosophy, social
metaphysics and epistemology, and biopolitics/bioethics. From April 2015, Tremain has
coordinated, edited, and produced Dialogues on Disability, the critically acclaimed series
of interviews that she is conducting with disabled philosophers and posts to
BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, the philosophy group blog that she coordinates with
Melinda Hall. Tremain is the author of Foucault and Feminist Philosophy of
Disability (University of Michigan Press, 2017), the editor of two editions of Foucault
and the Government of Disability (University of Michigan Press, 2005; 2015), the
editor of various journal issues on disability, and the editor of The Bloomsbury Guide
to Philosophy of Disability (forthcoming).

Friday, March 3, 10-11am (Montreal time, EST)
Friday, March 3, 10-11 am (Montreal time, EST)

Abstract
What would happen to our notion of expertise if we took seriously decolonial theorists’
insight that former colonial subjects continue to be epistemically marginalised and
illegitimately stripped of epistemic authority? We should revise our accounts of
expertise, I argue in this talk. The argument has three steps. First, I show that the
experts of the epistemically marginalised (e.g. traditional healers) are indeed experts:
they meet core conditions for responsibly placed trust in scientific experts. Second, I
show that existing accounts of expertise cannot accommodate this claim. For instance, a
traditional healer arguably doesn’t meet either the truth- or the justification-condition
on expertise commonly posited in the literature. Finally, I sketch a view of
expertise—what I call communitarian functionalism—that accommodates the thought
that the experts of the marginalised are indeed experts. Very roughly: a person counts
as an expert in domain D in virtue of (i) her role in her epistemic community, (ii) the
needs of this community regarding D, and (iii) whether she responsibly lives up to this
role. The argument offers a novel view of expertise which restores rightful epistemic
authority to the epistemically marginalised. If it works, it helps us make progress both in
the epistemology of expertise and with the project of epistemic decolonisation.

Bio
Veli is Professor in Philosophy and Director of the African Centre for Epistemology and
Philosophy of Science, at the University of Johannesburg. She is also
the South African team leader for the Templeton-funded Geography of Philosophy
Project. She works at the intersection of epistemology, ethics, and social epistemology.
At the moment, her focus is on epistemic injustice, decolonising knowledge, and the
ways in which phenomena such as white ignorance should make us rethink central
normative-epistemology concepts like epistemic risk, blame, responsibility, and
expertise. Veli is the author of Believable Evidence (CUP 2017), and the editor of
Epistemic Decolonisation (2020) and of The Factive Turn in Epistemology (CUP 2018).
Before joining the University of Johannesburg in 2015, Veli taught and researched at
Universität Wien, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, Rhodes University (her
alma mater), and Cambridge (where she obtained her PhD).

Friday 17 March, 12-1 pm (Montreal time, EST*)
Friday 17 March, 12-1 pm (Montreal time, EST*)

*NB: Le Canada et les États-Unis passent à l’heure d’été dès le 12 mars et l’Europe dès le 26 mars (entre ces deux dates, le décalage est donc moindre: par exemple le 17 mars, 12h-13h Montréal = 17h-18h Paris).
*NB: Daylight Saving Time starts on March 12 in Canada and the US and on March 26 in Europe (between these two dates, the time difference is thus less: e.g. on March 17, 12-1 pm Montreal = 5-6 pm Paris).

Author:
Alexandre Baril (Ph.D. Feminist and Gender Studies)
Pronouns: he, him
Associate Professor
School of Social Work
University of Ottawa
Room FSS12025
120 University
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5

Email: abaril@uottawa.ca
https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/804
Academia.edu: https://uottawa.academia.edu/AlexandreBaril

Short bio
Alexandre Baril is Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa. His work is situated at the
crossroads of gender, queer, trans, disability/crip/Mad studies, critical gerontology and critical
suicidology. His forthcoming book is entitled Undoing Suicidism: A Trans, Queer, Crip Approach
to Rethinking (Assisted) Suicide. His commitment to equity has earned him awards for his
involvement in queer, trans and disabled communities, including the Canadian Disability Studies
Association Tanis Doe Francophone Award (2020), and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
President’s Award at the University of Ottawa (2021). A prolific author, he has given over 185
presentations and has over 75 publications.

Title
“Please Save Me from the People Trying to Save Me!” When Suicide Prevention Exacerbates
Cisgenderism and the Suicidal Distress of Trans People

Abstract
In this presentation I argue that suicidal people are oppressed by structural suicidism. Suicidism
and its preventionist script cause additional harm and death through forms of epistemic
violence, incarceration, discrimination, stigmatization and pathologization. This is particularly
true for marginalized groups, such as trans people, for whom suicidist interventions increase
cisgenderist (transphobic) violence. I therefore question the idea that the best way to help
(trans) suicidal people is through prevention. I put forth the argument that supporting assisted
suicide for suicidal people could more effectively prevent deaths. Drawing on trans-affirmative
approaches, I propose a queercrip model of suicide and a suicide-affirmative approach that
allows for genuine accompaniment of (trans) suicidal individuals.

Vendredi 31 mars, 10h-11h (heure de Montréal, EST)
Friday 31 March, 10-11 am (Montreal time, EST)

Penser la justice épistémique à partir des savoirs signés

Résumé
L’écriture est une condition de l’épistémé, disait Jacques Derrida. En ce sens,
développer des savoirs et accéder à des connaissances dans sa langue première est
nécessaire à la justice épistémique pour les personnes sourdes. Or, les langues des
signes sont des langues tridimensionnelles pour lesquelles il existe peu de systèmes
d’écriture officiels. La vidéo constitue en ce sens une forme d’écriture privilégiée, tout en
soulevant des enjeux politiques et méthodologiques quant aux pratiques dominantes
dans l’économie de production des savoirs. Cette conférence aborde l’importance de
développer des savoirs signés (en langue des signes), en s’appuyant sur des exemples
tirés de recherches menées avec des personnes sourdes.

Bio
Artiste et chercheure engagée, Véro Leduc est professeure au département de
communication sociale et publique à l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Elle enseigne
au programme en action culturelle, ainsi qu’au programme Handicap et sourditude :
droits et citoyenneté, qu’elle a cofondé. Première professeure d’université sourde au
Québec, ses travaux portent notamment sur les pratiques artistiques des personnes
sourdes et handicapées au Canada, les musiques sourdes ainsi que sur la citoyenneté
culturelle des personnes sourdes et les pratiques d’équité culturelle. En 2020, elle a reçu
la médaille de la gouverneure générale du Canada pour son travail méritoire visant à
briser les barrières de l’exclusion sociale et à renforcer l’accessibilité à l’université et à la
culture pour les personnes sourdes et malentendantes.

Vendredi 14 avril, 13h-14h (heure de Montréal, EST)
Friday 14 April, 1-2 pm (Montreal time, EST)

Vendredi 12 mai, 12h-13h (heure de Montréal, EST)
Friday 12 May, 12-1 pm (Montreal time, EST)

Abstract

I will explore how science policy impacts Indigenous peoples in the area of climate change, health research, and repatriation of ancestral human remains and cultural objects. There are various forms of epistemic injustice that continue to cause erasure and inequity, and, as a legal scholar, I draw on the discourse of "human rights" to identify the nature of the injustice and potential solutions.

Bio

Rebecca Tsosie is a Regents Professor at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. Professor Tsosie, who is of Yaqui descent, is a faculty member for the Indigenous Peoples’ Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona, and she is widely known for her work in the fields of Federal Indian law and indigenous peoples’ human rights. Prior to joining the UA faculty, Professor Tsosie was a Regents' Professor and Vice Provost for Inclusion and Community Engagement at Arizona State University. Professor Tsosie was the first faculty Executive Director for ASU’s Indian Legal Program and served in that position for 15 years. Professor Tsosie has published widely on sovereignty, self-determination, cultural pluralism, environmental policy and cultural rights. She teaches in the areas of Federal Indian Law, Property, Constitutional Law, Critical Race Theory, and Cultural Resources Law. Professor Tsosie is a member of the Arizona Bar Association and the California Bar Association. Professor Tsosie serves as a Supreme Court Justice for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and as an Associate Judge on the San Carlos Tribal Court of Appeals. She received her B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.