Unsettling the Coloniality of the Researcher: Toward a Black Studies Approach to Critical Humanisms in Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

This article unsettles the coloniality of the researcher, a convergence between coloniality, the researcher, and dominant representations of the human. This unsettling is necessary to call attention to, critique, and dismantle the institutional and systemic racism and its quotidian and mundane practices within Qualitative Inquiry as well as the human sciences in general. Engaging in Black Studies and the autobiographical, I first flesh out how coloniality continues to inform our notion of who does research, how one does research, and which cultural messages and knowledges are permissible. This coloniality naturalizes Man as our conception of the human and represents Black people as non-human even as we become researchers. Then, I illustrate how Black Studies approaches to Black cultural traditions and philosophies open up different possibilities in Qualitative Inquiry for the Black researcher, critical knowledge practices, and a more expansive conception of the human.

Origins of Critical Theory and the Exclusion of the Black Philosopher W. E. B. Du Bois

“…Unquestioned forms of representation serve to maintain the status quo by excluding philosophers of color as part of their delivered research (Hensen, 2021). Too often as a researcher of color, I have been dismayed when attending a workshop to find out not one theory, philosophy, or philosopher who is Black is listed to explain a phenomenon experienced by the population at large.…”

Anti-Racist Research Praxis: Feminist Relational Accountability and Arts-Based Reflexive Memoing for Qualitative Data Collection in Social Work Research

“…Collins and Cannella (2021) argue that racism is embedded in the regular practices of research and point to the necessity of reconceptualizing and redesigning qualitative inquiry from an anti-racist perspective. Anti-racist researchers have typically focused on the importance of centering racialized participants’ stories (Dei, 2005), choosing not to reproduce “damage-centered narratives” (Tuck, 2009), and actively unsettling “the coloniality of the researcher” (Henson, 2021). Others suggest the need to “study up” the people, institutions, policies, and ideologies which produce this harm in the first place (Becker & Aiello, 2013; Nader, 1972).…”