Sara Kok

In this article, I propose an expanded conceptualization of epistemic appropriation. I argue that epistemic appropriation can be either wrongful or non-wrongful, and that it can occur in all directions – from marginalized to dominant communities, but also from dominant to marginalized communities. Furthermore, I argue that epistemic appropriation can take place both inter- and intra-communally. Lastly, I argue that the epistemic resources that are appropriated do not have to originate in the community they are appropriated from to be considered appropriation, as this can also take place when a community has a stake in a certain use of these resources. In doing so, I come to the following, stripped-down, definition: epistemic appropriation is the uptake of epistemic resources that obscures something about the resources.

In this article, I identify a conceptually distinct form of epistemic appropriation: the creation and proliferation of the epistemic fata morgana. An epistemic fata morgana is a hermeneutical resource that is hollowed out, stripped of its meaning and political power, and yet, posited as if it were still accessible. This resource is taken up by dominant knowers in a way that preserves only its perception, but not access to it. This process is illustrated by an examination of the resource “sexual harassment” within the university context. The epistemic fata morgana is an important addition to the field of epistemic injustice for it lends itself to highlighting the frustration that is felt by marginalized people, especially within institutional contexts.

This paper aims to read together Julietta Singh’s Unthinking Mastery and Suzanne Césaire’s The Great Camouflage in order to uncover the narrative spaces in Césaire’s work that can be fruitful for unthinking mastery. I identify four connected themes in Césaire’s work. Surrealism, rejection of doudou-ism and the natural disaster explicitly reject the construction of the Caribbean as one exoticized place and mechanisms of categorization. The only stable identity of the Caribbean is its instability. The figure of the plant-human adds to this and transcends the human/non-human dichotomy in a way that dismantles this central dichotomy altogether.