Mahachi / Makoni / Quaynor Reimagining Decoloniality Through Fluid Ways of Knowing

Watery Epistemologies
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-83668-469-5
Verlag: Multilingual Matters
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 9, 264 Seiten

Reihe: Global Forum on Southern Epistemologies

Explores how animated water, rivers and dams can be used to frame language, southern multilingualisms and to develop pedagogies

This book explores how water functions as both a material reality and an epistemological metaphor for rethinking knowledge production from decolonial and Global South perspectives.

It brings together scholars from diverse disciplines to examine how water – rivers, oceans, rain and aquatic cosmologies – shapes ways of knowing, remembering and relating to the environment. The chapters critically interrogate dominant Western epistemologies and foreground Southern and decolonial epistemologies.

The book seeks to recover marginalized knowledge traditions and challenge dominant academic Eurocentric frameworks proposing water as a generative site for reimagining knowledge production.

It contributes to ongoing debates in decolonial studies, environmental humanities, education and African studies, offering new metaphors, methodologies and paths towards solidarity and collaboration.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mahachi, Susan Wairimu

Makoni, Sinfree

Quaynor, Phoebe

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Denkansätze und Ideologie der Umweltschützer
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Soziolinguistik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Forschung und Information Forschungsmethodik, Wissenschaftliche Ausstattung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword. Ashraf Abdelhay: Water: A Decolonial Sociolinguistic Heuristic

Introduction. Sinfree Makoni, Susan Wairimu Mahachi, Mama Nii-Owoo Adobea, and Loreen Marata: “It Is Precisely Dangerous and Wild Aspects of Rivers That Makes Them Good to Think With”: Reflections on Decolonial Thinking About Language Using Riverine Sociolinguistics and Water Grammars

Chapter 1. Comfort Azubuko-Udah: Storying Piped and Domestic Water in Nigerian Literature

Chapter 2. Charne Lavery: The Southern Indian Ocean and the Oceanic South

Chapter 3. Isabel Hofmeyr: Dockside Reading: Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House

Chapter 4. Sarah Nuttall: On Pluviality: Rain as Method

Chapter 5. Bonnie McElhinny and Sinfree Makoni: Once Upon a River: A Conversation About Water, Water Epistemologies, and Language

Chapter 6. Sybil Diver: Social Impact Assessment of Klamath Dam Removal: Learning from the Karuk Tribe’s Leadership for Eco-Cultural Revitalization

Chapter 7. Priya Parrotta: From Archives to Soundscapes: Integrating Historiography, Music and Environmental Consciousness in Courses on Tropical Islands

Chapter 8. Lucia Thesen: Knowledge-Making from A Postgraduate Writers’ Circle: A Southern Reflectory

Afterword. Tommaso Milani: Ways of Water: Politics, Pedagogy, Epistemology

Über Autor(innen)

Quaynor, Phoebe
Phoebe Quaynor is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Mahachi, Susan Wairimu
Susan Wairimu Mahachi is an independent scholar and educational consultant with a PhD from Pennsylvania State University, USA. Her research centers on educational theories that seek to create pluriversal learning spaces—spaces that recognize and engage diverse epistemologies while supporting students’ conceptual thinking in science education.

Makoni, Sinfree
Sinfree Makoni is Director of African Studies, Liberal Arts Professor of African Studies and Applied Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Susan Wairimu Mahachi is an independent scholar and educational consultant with a PhD from Pennsylvania State University, USA. Her research centers on educational theories that seek to create pluriversal learning spaces—spaces that recognize and engage diverse epistemologies while supporting students’ conceptual thinking in science education.

Sinfree Makoni is Liberal Arts Professor of Africana Studies and the inaugural Head of the Department of Africana Studies at Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Phoebe Quaynor is Assistant Teaching Professor in the College of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Pennsylvania State University, USA.