Contending with Coloniality through Speculation, Storytelling, and Sound Performance

Below is a slightly modified version of the preface that appears in my dissertation, which I successfully defended in April 2021 at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Contending with Coloniality through Speculation, Storytelling, and Sound Performance” is an experiment. As a dissertation, it is not oriented toward persuasion through argumentative prose. Rather, a fictional narrative, some written and musical fragments that animate that narrative, and the larger universe in which the narrative unfolds perform the heaviest intellectual labor. I have endeavored to facilitate an emotional, multisensory experience that, to riff on the words of a wise old medium from the hidden village of Emishi, invites you to perceive with senses unclouded by critique (Miyazaki 2000).

Over three decades ago, Barbara Christian contrasted this kind of theorizing against what she called “the Western form of abstract logic” (1987, 52). Christian grew up around women who played with language, telling stories, riddles, and proverbs that embodied incisive analyses of the power relations shaping their lives. Like Christian, I derive energy from this kind of theorizing, a life-giving energy that preserves my wit, ingenuity, and creativity as an African-descended person.

Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley calls those who tell stories, riddles, and proverbs in this way “other kinds of theorists,” and she urges academic researchers to listen to them more (2010, 28). I claim these theorists as kin, thinkers who employ poetry, speculation, and storytelling to “[dissolve] divides between theorizing and imagining” (Tinsley 2010, 28). In determining the form of this dissertation, I was particularly inspired by Samuel R. Delany (1993), Alexis Pauline Gumbs (2018), and E. Patrick Johnson (2019). The content of this dissertation responds directly to works by Octavia Butler (2000), N. K. Jemisin (2018), Ursula K. Le Guin (2014), Janelle Monáe (2018), and Rebecca Sugar (2020).

Why have I aligned my dissertation with these “other kinds of theorists”? Because there are things worth knowing that cannot be expressed in argumentative prose, things worth hearing that might most compellingly be expressed through a story or a song. Because making research does not have to be driven by a desire to convince someone of something; research can exist just to keep another’s company, to foster community and understanding, to lessen the threat posed by difference—real or perceived.

Companionship is the goal of my research. In my societies, too many humans reach too often and too easily for domination where empathy and compassion would promote wellness and healing. We might be refusing to accept when another is not swayed by our point of view, or helping to reproduce institutional practices that eradicate or marginalize all except a single prescribed way to be, think, do, or relate; no matter the scale, this impulse to dominate where we perceive difference is a powerful means of reproducing harm. Focusing on companionship over persuasion in my work models a different way of relating that I believe is necessary to stop the destruction of life—human and other-than-human—on the planet. Further, companionship makes room for feelings and sensations, for pleasure, in the process of making and encountering research. Academic conference presentations are alienating, academic prose arduous. It can be easier to keep another’s company, to be present with another person and their work, when your feelings and sensations are explicitly invited to the encounter, too, not just your ideas.

So, this dissertation offers an experience rather than a critique. You become an archival researcher, piecing together fragments of text and sound to make sense of a time and place that you cannot physically access. I invite you to engage your imagination, immerse yourself in the world of this project, and see what you find, see how you feel, see what you feel like doing afterward. I hope that you feel inspired, or curious, or moved, or that you want to share with someone what you experienced, or that you immediately want to watch Steven Universe or read N. K. Jemisin.

You will encounter a short story, an unfinished letter, a historical research article, a government report, and four musical recordings, each of which builds the speculative world of this dissertation and is included in Part I. Accompanying this assemblage of texts and sounds are three essays that focus on the process of making this project: the dissertation proposal, my rationale for communicating research through sound and narrative, and a brief description of the process that led from the proposal to the final dissertation submission. These essays can be found in Part II.

By arranging these materials in the dissertation document, I have suggested an order in which you might engage with them. However, you may start with the text or the recording that most stimulates your interest.

To experience this dissertation for free, please visit the Penn Libraries Scholarly Commons and ensure that you download both the PDF and the accompanying audio files.

Works Cited

Butler, Octavia. 2000. Parable of the Sower. New York: Warner Books.

Christian, Barbara. 1987. “The Race for Theory.” Cultural Critique no. 6: 51. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354255.

Delany, Samuel R. 1993. Tales of Nevèrÿon. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Gumbs, Alexis Pauline. 2018. M Archive: After the End of the World. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Jemisin, N. K. 2018. The Broken Earth Trilogy. New York: Orbit.

Johnson, E. Patrick. 2019. Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Le Guin, Ursula K. 2014. The Dispossessed. New York: Harper Perennial.

Miyazaki, Hayao, director. 2000. Princess Mononoke. DVD video. Burbank, CA: Miramax Home Entertainment.

Monáe, Janelle. 2018. Dirty Computer. Streaming audio. New York: Bad Boy.

Sugar, Rebecca, creator. 2020. Steven Universe: The Complete Collection. DVD video. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros.

Tinsley, Omise’eke Natasha. 2010. Thiefing Sugar: Eroticism Between Women in Caribbean Literature. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.