“The Hierarchy of Knowledge”: Deciphering Man Within Computer Science Disciplinary Values

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Knowing and Learning in Context

Abstract

Disciplinary values are often unwelcome to (and can delegitimize) expansive ways of knowing as they are shaped by ideal versions of (White, Western, cishetero, etc.) humanity that exclude human and more-than-human Others – what Black Studies scholar Sylvia Wynter names as the overrepresentation of Man. In this paper, I center and observe the expansive sensemaking of a prominent Black scholar-activist in computing, Timnit Gebru, who comes to unravel the influence of Man in her discipline. Selecting a keynote from a computer science conference in 2020 where Timnit reflected on tensions within her experiences learning disciplinary values, I utilize Wynterian theory and discourse analysis to analyze Timnit’s navigation of disciplinary values up to her conclusion of a “hierarchy of knowledge” in computing.

Author

• Natalie Araujo Melo, Northwestern University