Unsettling Raciolinguistic Barriers: Redefining Communicative “Problems” and Reimagining Decolonial Possibilities

Colonial and imperial histories and contemporary realities often lead to the framing of marginalized populations’ linguistic practices as learning impediments, thereby scapegoating them as primary causes of educational and broader societal problems. This presentation draws on critical decolonial perspectives to understand the historical and contemporary consolidation of borders delimiting languages, identities, and geographies. Such a reconceptualization points to opportunities for reckoning, redress, and reimagination that emerge when we approach marginalized communities not as communicatively deficient, but rather as dynamic linguistic contexts that unsettle conventional assumptions about knowledges, institutions, and possible worlds.

Room 126