Linguistic Queering to Unveil the Hidden: Listening to the Voice of Plants Through Programming

• In Event: The Fight for Racial Justice in STEM Education: Perspectives From the Field

Abstract

Drawing from queer of color theoretical analysis on languages, we conceptualize the act of linguistic queering as a site of unsilencing and taking actions toward intersectional liberation. Considering the colonial and militaristic apparatus of the STEM discipline, we see the act of linguistic queering as a way to reorient the hidden disciplinary agenda, by questioning dominant norms. We draw from data collected during a three-year partnership project to design a program that centers socio-environmental justice for racialized refugee communities. Our analysis focuses on moments when facilitators and children mobilized their programmed robot to communicate with plants. We show how the microgenetic development of scientific language challenged dominant linguistic norms including the human and non-human dichotomies.

Authors

• Miwa Aoki Takeuchi, University of Calgary

• Sophia Thraya, University of Calgary