Undisciplined Knowledge: Intersectional Black European Studies

Abstract

This article explores the structural dependence of humanities disciplines on a Eurocentric model of knowledge production that inevitably marginalizes racialized communities, scholars of color, and their intellectual productions. Using the increasing attacks on the interdisciplines in the United States as its starting point, the article shows that a defense of the humanities as “above politics” contributes to this delegitimization of marginalized knowledge. Turning to the European context, it suggests that a decolonizing of academe must include a reckoning with the Continent’s colonial past (and present), including the role of the Left, and involve a radically different approach to disciplinarity. Finally, the article offers the recent intersectional Black European studies initiative as an example of such a radically different model of academic knowledge production.