What is colonial science? 

Colonial science does particular kinds of work, it produces specific kinds of categories for the regulation of populations. And through those regulations, we have a different negotiation between state institutions, for-profit institutions across industries, and the general populace. That has to do with the notion of biological essentialism. The notion that when you are born the state tells you that “you are this gender” and “you are this race”. We are told that these social positions or statuses are ascribed statuses and thus fixed. Ascribed statuses and biological essentialism function to ensure that particular resources, rights, and actions are distributed across different social positions. When we look at the history of colonial science, we see a clear and consistent use of scientific knowledge being used as the rationale for justifying and denying the rights and resources belonging to colonized and racialized peoples.

All of the contestations surrounding gender, race(ism), ability, and class are all directly connected to the production of scientific knowledge. For example, the concept of “homosexuality”, created in the late 18th century specifically in the United States, was conceptualized as a disease by psychologists and physicians. Scientists have always been part of creating or legitimating what is considered “real/true” and what is “not real/true” in modern society and generally in service to the Euro-imperialist interests. The settler state uses scientific knowledge to produce laws, regulations, and policies that instruct institutions on how they’re supposed to treat particular people.

What is “decolonial science”?

Decolonial scientists have a particular kind of ethical vision that science should be practiced with humans in mind. Not helping the state maintain sovereignty over the land and the resources and the bodies on the land. What does this mean?

(1) Ethical scientific practice guides your decisions and actions with regard to how you do your scholarship.

(2) Decolonial science changes the way you do your projects. Ultimately, this means that science cannot be done without being in direct conversations with community members who are directly impacted by your work and what you study.

This allows us to start having different kinds of conversations about responsibility and about who our audience is. Scientists have been excluding the public from many of our conversations, and then we expect the public to understand the value of our work, which is quite foolish.

Decolonial scientific practice is grounded in the context of material history and the direct confrontation of the colonial situation* (*See Frantz Fanon’s first chapter of his book “Wretched of the Earth”). There are other parts of society and everyday life, and we’ve got to be part of those conversations; science is not separate from the world; it’s part of it. For instance, let’s consider the ongoing massive defunding of public education in Settler America. That’s something that scientists should be directly involved with. Why? Defunding public education very directly pushes out colonized, racialized, disabled and poor people from being able to equitably participate in generating scientific knowledge. Speaking truth to power moves us closer to asking different and better questions, and considering other possibilities. Decolonial scientists are thus asking questions that are informed by a general idea that no group of people, nobody’s humanity is negotiable.