Pedagogies of Ignorance and Authoritarian Epistemologies: Cyborg Surveillance States, Meme Warfare, and MAGA Drag Queens

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium explores how ignorance functions as a pedagogical and political tool in the post-truth era, where misinformation and disinformation are deliberately produced, circulated, and monetized. Drawing on Charles Mills’ concept of racialized ignorance and feminist epistemologies (Haraway, 1991; Tuana, 2006), we examine how ignorance is mobilized across biological, cultural, and political terrains to destabilize public discourse and uphold structures of domination. The papers in this session analyze diverse sites—policy platforms, educational settings, national laws, and digital media—to trace how ignorance is operationalized, weaponized, and sustained. Together, they offer theoretical and empirical insights into how ignorance is cultivated and shapes what counts as knowledge. This symposium provides a critical framework for confronting ignorance in education and beyond.

Sub Unit

• Division B - Curriculum Studies / Division B - Section 1: Cultural Inquiry in Curriculum Studies

Chair

• Erik L. Malewski, Kennesaw State University

Papers

• @catturd2 and the Cyborgian Memeification of Ignorance - Jake Burdick, Purdue University

• Name It and Reclaim It: Black Youth Using Social Media to Disrupt Pedagogies of Ignorance - Janelle Grant-Ashbaugh, Grand Valley State University

• The Surveillance Cyborg: Palantir and the Posthuman Security Apparatus - Jennifer April Sandlin, Arizona State University

• Lady MAGA: A Reactionary Queer Cyborg - Erik L. Malewski, Kennesaw State University

• Enduring Logics of Fungibility: A Decolonial Reading - Nathalia E Jaramillo, Kennesaw State University

• Deploying Ignorance as Resistance: Theorizing and Applying Posthuman Ignorance - Alexander B. Pratt, University of Memphis

Session Organizer

• Erik L. Malewski, Kennesaw State University

Discussant

• Denise M. Taliaferro Baszile, Wayne State University