In this archive, I collect moments, thoughts, texts, art and anything else in which I recognize alternative epistemologies.
Alternative epistemologies: ways of understanding ourselves, others, the world and everything in it that do not follow modern/colonial capitalist logic. Ways of understanding the world that are, instead, more human, healthy and healing. That foster justice for people and the planet.
As I explained in my theoretical framework, my work is rooted in decolonial and feminist knowledges and practices. But I see inspiration everywhere - being with friends, meeting new people, reading books, watching films, learning about histories and cultures, engaging with art, simply living life and being outside in cities such as Rotterdam, London or Lisbon.
These alternative epistemologies are needed, because the epistemology that is 'normal' under global capitalism (re)produces modern/colonial injustices. So we need other ways of knowing and being! Hence, this archive!
This archive is a work in progress that will probably take on many different forms throughout time. For now, I made it as one big page with different clusters. In these clusters, I bring together things that, in my head, relate to each other. There’s for example a cluster that is focused on beauty standards, but also a cluster that revolves around art and creativity. In this way, I try to give shape to what happens inside my head when I read something that makes me think of another thing I read before. I love being able to bring those two things together - not just in my head but in an actual page that I can come back to.
There’s one cluster that I wanted to have in a separate page, which is one that centers around history and the way in which history is taught and talked about.
I also wanted to have a separate page for Lisbon, London and Rotterdam: three cities that I have learned and lived (or currently live) in and feel connected to in many different ways. But it is not only my personal story/history in these cities that draws me to them, it is also their own stories/histories as major port cities in the imperial core that make them interesting and important contexts to bring together. What social and cultural currents flow through each of these cities? Where can we see resistance to modernity/coloniality? Can we learn from/with each other?
There’s also a separate page where I gather scholars and their theories in alphabetical order. I didn’t really grow up in an intellectual environment and I have always felt overwhelmed by the world of academic research and theory - less now than before but there’s still so much that feels unfamiliar to me. I don’t wanna shame or devalue that experience. I want to cater to it rather than act like it shouldn’t be there. This page is my attempt to make academic research and theory a bit more accessible, also because I have such a hard time remembering who said what and with which words. Ahhh, it becomes so frustrating sometimes when you understand something in vision/feeling but not in language. In those moments, I can always come back to this page to see what has been said before (by a very specific group of people though, as most of them are academics who are operating from the West).
Lastly, there’s a page where I collect my own work: essays, dissertations, presentations and creative expressions that I have created or contributed to.
As a white Dutch woman, my survival is not threatened by modern/colonial logic. I do not know what it feels like to be seen as an 'other', a 'threat', a 'stranger' by the system. Being white and European means that while I might be disempowered by coloniality in some ways, my existence is generally not marginalized by institutions. This stands in contrast to those who are racialized and otherwise subjected to the oppression that colonial hierarchies still inflict in contemporary societies. Knowledge about coloniality is obtained and carried differently across these positionalities. Whereas many people have colonialism as a very current theme in their lives from a young age onwards, learning about it from family members and through their own experiences of racism, I learned about it primarily at a later age in institutional education environments, such as museums and academic studies. This inevitably shapes my engagement with the topic and the way I study it.
My search for alternative ways of knowing and being, while coming from a place of extreme discomfort with modern/colonial norms and (beauty) standards, is not a matter of: the culture that I grew up in, and my external identity markers, are targets of violence so I have to fight the system in order to survive. It’s the opposite: in this system, my identity comes with many privileges. I want to use those privileges (for one: the time, means and mental capacity I have to engage in this search for alternative epistemologies in my free time) to envision, and hopefully contribute, to more liberation.
my positionality
There's love in the elsewhere
There's liberation in the elsewhere
There's revolution in the elsewhere
Peace of mind in the elsewhere
Neither here nor there
The end of the world as you know it
In the elsewhere
aja monet - elsewhere
ELIZA - Whoever You Are
How can I say?
All my words seem to get in the way
Send my heart
On the wind, in the stars
Givin' the world my love
You can have it all
What else is life for?