Praxis is no Metaphor: Diasporic Knowledges and Maroon Epistemes to Repair the World

Abstract:Thinking about a project like the effective decolonization of eighteenth-century studies demands a total remapping of the world. That can be difficult for any institution—and particularly so for institutions based on the consolidation of knowledge and the enforcement of disciplinary boundaries. And so, to decolonize eighteenth-century studies must entail more than just an intentional effort to reimagine the field by pursuing novel avenues of research, or studying new texts, geographies, or protagonists. Rather, this essay provides a call for action. By centering praxis, I articulate the insufficiency of gestures like making the field look nominally more diverse or the tokenistic inclusion of subjects of inquiry racialized as non-white. Without an actual, substantive commitment to return land, repair the world, and produce new material realities, decolonization will remain in the realm of the metaphorical. Thus, to enact change and to seek a reconfiguration of modes of sociality and the ethos of scholarship requires the enactment of self-reflexive criticism and a deep commitment to practicing liberation.