northwestern buffett global working group: epistemic reparations
Starting Fall 2023-2025, I am a member of the Epistemic Reparations Global Working Group, funded by a Buffett Global Catalyst Grant ($300,000). The co-leads of the project are Jennifer Lackey and Ben Frommer.
This project examines how reparative work can encompass not only material restitution but also what we might call “epistemic reparations” — reparations that concern knowledge, knowing, or making known. A central aim is to work with partners to make spaces for victims of human rights violations to share their knowledge and experiences with others as a form of epistemically reparative work. Another aim is to investigate how epistemically reparative work can misfire, fall short, or otherwise create opportunities for reflection on how to improve.
One question I am especially interested in is the connection between epistemic reparations and reconciliation in Canada. How can we ensure that epistemic reparations in Canada do not simply serve as subtler, more hidden forms of colonial dominance?
The Group will explore epistemic reparations in three main sites: a cluster of projects will focus on carceral justice in the Chicago area (led by Jennifer Lackey, Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program); another cluster will focus on post-apartheid justice in South Africa (led by Veli Mitova, Director of the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science); the third will focus on reconciliation in the Canadian context, specifically with a focus on Manitoba (led by Cameron Boult, Associate Professor at BU).
My role in this project will be to co-ordinate activities in Manitoba. Our first one is happening this September at Qaumajuc, in Winnipeg (Sept 15-16, 2023). The event will include a free public panel discussion with Senator Mary Jane McCallum — a residential school survivor - and Photo Laureate of Toronto Nadya Kwandibens. The discussion will be led by Jennifer Lackey. More broadly, a big part of what I will be doing over the next two years is engaging with Indigenous scholars and activists to learn more about what “epistemic reparations” means to them, and what meaningful ways of approaching epistemic reparations can look like in Manitoba and beyond.
