Mr James Jang1, Ms Anna Carlson1
1University Of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
What does it mean to think and write collectively within and against the neoliberal, still-colonial university? What possibilities for divergent or subversive knowledge are there in the confines of these institutions? And how might we come together to think across diverse subjectivities? This paper extends ongoing discussions and collaborations between the authors about the role of diverse subjectivities in the production of knowledge; and the violence of making ourselves legible to/in the contemporary university. We wonder: what kinds of tensions are produced when we attempt to articulate “diverse” modes of knowledge-production in academic institutions? Who bears the brunt of those tremors and anxieties? For us – a man of colour and a white settler woman, living and working on the unceded lands of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples: is it possible to write and think together in the spaces of the university, or must we plot moments of retreat, escape, refusal?
In this paper, we draw from cultural studies and critical geography to think about spaces of knowledge production, the politics and poetics of authority and authorship, and the (perhaps insurmountable) challenge of thinking together in the context of continuing colonialism; across intersections of race, gender and sexuality.
Biography:
James is a PhD student working between the disciplines of anthropology and cultural studies investigating how the self is made and performed in South Korea. James has an ongoing interest in and relationship to the question of how bodies are articulated and negotiated in everyday spaces.
Anna is a radio producer, illustrator and researcher, currently based in Meanjin. She is an organiser of the Brisbane Free University & co-produces 4zzz’s Radio Reversal. Her PhD research investigates the relationship between surveillance and colonialism in Brisbane from an intersectional, spatial standpoint approach.
