Why anti-racism and critical whiteness now? A (tentative, subjunctive) conceptual geography of the empire of whiteness

Abstract

Our essay provides a provocation supporting the special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education’s titled “Why antiracism and critical whiteness now?” As editors, we circulated its call knowing that the conditions of our work in race and whiteness studies had changed. In our essay, we work through the special issue’s central question via the critical psychoanalytic notion of identification ruptures. Autobiographically and then historically-socially un-suturing ourselves and work, we subjunctively sketch a conceptual geography of the empire of whiteness on-the-rise.

Keywords:

• Antiracism
• critical Whiteness studies
• race and whiteness
• decolonial theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James Jupp

James Jupp works as Professor and Chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His two intertwined lines of research focus on anti-racist and decolonial pedagogies. His work has been published in Teachers College Record, AERA’s Review of Educational Research, Curriculum Inquiry, and Journal of Curriculum Studies, among other venues. His third book On Itinerant Curriculum Theory: Decolonial Praxes, Theories, and Histories will be published on Peter Lang in Fall 2022.

Pauli Badenhorst

Pauli Badenhorst is an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching & Learning at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His emergent scholarship – which expresses deep longing for relational antiracism work across schools and society – engages relational complexities surrounding race and processes of racialization. To this end, he draws on psychoanalytic concepts alongside Black antiracist thought, poststructuralism, philosophical pessimism, cultural studies, and theories of materiality. He is also focused on designing holistic epistemological frames to inform relational antiracist teaching, learning, and curriculum.

Jenna Min Shim

Jenna Min Shim is a professor in the College of Education at University of Wyoming where she is currently serving as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. Shim’s research focuses on anti-racist education and curriculum studies as well as teacher education for English learners. Her scholarship has appeared in the Curriculum Inquiry, Journal of Curriculum Studies, Teaching and Teacher Education, Journal of Teacher Education, and other scholarly venues.