Flows of Anticolonialism: (Re)Configurations and Emplotments of More-Than-Witness(es/ing) in the An(thropo/glo)cene

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Issues in Social Studies Research

Abstract

This paper leans into alterlife (Murphy, 2017) and connectivity ontologies (Harrison, 2015) to explore the implications of more-than-witness(es/ing) (our term) on social studies education. Taking a narrative approach, we engage with three more-than-human entities (e.g., Boulder, Forest, Notebook) in an effort to expand how act(or/ion)s of coloniality are registered, conceptualized, and disrupted. By recasting agency to consider what non-humans have witnessed, we ask: What might social studies be(come) if we (e.g., educators, students, researchers) affirmed the voices of non-human beings in teaching and learning? And, what, if we quieted ourselves and listened, can we learn from non-human beings (and entities) who bear witness to the actions of humans across time and space?

Authors

• Bretton A. Varga, California State University - Chico

• Sarah B. Shear, University of Washington - Bothell