Beyond Reason: Postcolonial Theory and the Social Sciences

Modern knowledge, it would seem, is in crisis. It is no longer “modern,” and it is not “knowledge,” at least not in the sense that it contributes to the progress toward a “universal Truth.” At best, any claim to the contrary smacks of naivety. With the rise of global social justice movements like BlackLivesMatter, the 1619 Project, calls to decolonize education, and the turn to Indigenous ways of knowing and being, challenges to the ideas produced and circulated in formal educational settings have over the last few years gained renewed purchase. While popular critiques of “modern knowledge” were once relegated to works of high theory, recently published work1 demonstrates that scholars are seeking new ways of understanding how the disciplines produce, disseminate, and police specific ways of knowing.