Global Epistemologies (Taking Stock of New Cultural, Medical, Political, and Social Knowledges)

Global Epistemologies (Taking Stock of New Cultural, Medical, Political, and Social Knowledges) research programme (2022 - 24) seeked to take stock of various forms of local knowledge around the world in a range of domains (cultural heritage, healing, environment, etc.). The programme pursued this through:

a funding call (open to Queen Mary University of London staff and PhD Students to carry out own research),
a series of conversations (exploring indigenous and non-anthropomorphic forms of knowledge and decolonising global cultural heritage),
developing large-scale research grants (“Local Experiences of Early Cinema in the British Colonies” and “Colonialism in High School Education around the World”).

The programme was headed by Dr Mario Slugan .

Three general topics were explored in the programme's talks:

1. indigenous knowledge:

indigenous knowledge as a source of Enlightenment (especially debates stemming from recent work of Graeber and Wengrow),
traditional knowledge and medicine & botany (especially psychoactive substances),
epistemic evaluation of indigenous knowledge (potential for evaluative epistemological meta-systems).

2. decolonising global cultural heritage:

decolonising art collections (especially the British Museum),
archaeology, ancient DNA & ancient burial sites (especially questions of respecting final resting places),
decolonising the film archive and global film heritage (especially British Film Institute).

3. non-anthropomorphic forms of knowledge:

animal forms of knowledge (especially species who learn),
AI and machine learning (especially learning based on human prejudices),
flat ontologies which do not privilege epistemic subjects (especially object-oriented ontologies).

These events were live discussions between two experts (a global expert and an expert from QMUL) with Dr Slugan as moderator.

Three general topics are explored:

1) indigenous knowledge:

indigenous knowledge as a source of Enlightenment (especially debates stemming from recent work of Graeber and Wengrow),
traditional knowledge and medicine & botany (especially psychoactive substances),
epistemic evaluation of indigenous knowledge (potential for evaluative epistemological meta-systems).

2) decolonising global cultural heritage:

decolonising art collections (especially the British Museum),
archaeology, ancient DNA & ancient burial sites (especially questions of respecting final resting places),
decolonising the film archive and global film heritage (especially British Film Institute).

3) non-anthropomorphic forms of knowledge:

animal forms of knowledge (especially species who learn),
AI and machine learning (especially learning based on human prejudices),
flat ontologies which do not privilege epistemic subjects (especially object-oriented ontologies).

These events are live discussions between two experts (a global expert and an expert from QMUL) with Dr Slugan as moderator. If you have an idea about a potential topic and/or would like to participate in some form, please contact Dr Slugan (m.slugan@qmul.ac.uk).