Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge: Writings of Lewis R. Gordon

Description

Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge collects key philosophical writings of Lewis R. Gordon, a globally renowned scholar whose writings cover liberation struggles across the globe and make field-defining contributions to the philosophy of existence, philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, philosophy of human sciences, aesthetics, and decolonization. Gordon's expansive output ranges across phenomenology, anti-Blackness, activist thinkers, sexuality, Fanon, Jimi Hendrix, Black Jewish struggles, critical pedagogy, psychoanalysis, and Ubuntu philosophy. Edited by Rozena Maart and Sayan Dey, two decolonial thinkers from South Africa and India, this reader shifts attention away from colonial centres of power, encouraging global dialogue across students, scholars, and activists. Featuring a foreword by the celebrated novelist and postcolonial thinker, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, this reader includes a mixture of research articles, short critical essays, reflections, interviews, poems, and photographs in the creative pursuit of liberation.

Lewis R. Gordon is Professor and Department Head at the University of Connecticut, USA, and Honorary Professor in the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University and Adjunct Professor at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa. Rozena Maart is Professor at the School of Social Sciences in the College of Humanities, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa and a Mercator Fellow and Research Ambassador for the University of Bremen, Germany. Sayan Dey is Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Faculty Fellow at the Harriet Tubman Institute, York University, Canada.

Lewis R. Gordon's written words-along with his music, love, compassion, and interconnected humanity- teaches us to end "cruelty" and dehumanizing of the Damned of the Earth by "open[ing] our hearts to the freedom and possibility of life" and thereby making the world more livable for all humans and more-than-humans. * Jaspal Kaur Singh, Professor of English Literature, Northern Michigan University, USA *