Unsettling the Coloniality of the Researcher: Toward a Black Studies Approach to Critical Humanisms in Qualitative Inquiry

摘要

This article unsettles the coloniality of the researcher, a convergence between coloniality, the researcher, and dominant representations of the human. This unsettling is necessary to call attention to, critique, and dismantle the institutional and systemic racism and its quotidian and mundane practices within Qualitative Inquiry as well as the human sciences in general. Engaging in Black Studies and the autobiographical, I first flesh out how coloniality continues to inform our notion of who does research, how one does research, and which cultural messages and knowledges are permissible. This coloniality naturalizes Man as our conception of the human and represents Black people as non-human even as we become researchers. Then, I illustrate how Black Studies approaches to Black cultural traditions and philosophies open up different possibilities in Qualitative Inquiry for the Black researcher, critical knowledge practices, and a more expansive conception of the human.