The Humanities Institute at the University of Montana presents “Humanizing ‘The Slave’: Methodology as Racial Justice” with Dr. Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh
Since the inception of the system that displaced and colonized humans in one locale for the production of goods within a global economy, the term “slave” has been deployed to describe the persons whose physical, intellectual, and reproductive resources supported the dawn of modernity. Though the discursive treatment of the persons bearing the designation has changed over time, the residue of its ontological significance persists. Enslaved persons continue to appear in scholarly and popular literature as undifferentiated bodies who largely resided on the periphery of historical processes until their emancipation catapulted them into the role of actors. The omissions effectively render the enslaved inanimate and perpetually trapped within the enslaved/free paradigm, in which varied forms of sociopolitical freedoms are requisite for personhood. How can focusing on approaches to the study of the interior lives of U.S. bondpeople invite new paradigms for racial justice? More importantly, to what extent can concepts indigenous to the academy—concepts like methodology—extend beyond their scholarly contexts to nuance or challenge notions of racial justice?
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