What If I Just Cite Graciela? Working Toward Decolonizing Knowledge Through a Critical Ethnography

Abstract

Calls for decolonizing knowledge have been heard from multiple fronts for some time. At issue are questions regarding who gets to claim knowledge, how knowledge is claimed, and how is one to go about gaining knowledge. This article raises questions about the actual practice of decolonizing academic knowledge focusing on the implications of having to claim sanctioned intellectual traditions to be considered a legitimate player. The author wrestles with the fact that people like Graciela, a woman who became an actor in her ethnographic work and shared her reflections about social life, are among the many nonacademics who are typically the subject of research but are rarely considered worth citing as part of one's intellectual grounding. The author brings her own experience doing a critical ethnography with Graciela and other Mexican nonacademics, including issues they raised, as a way of anchoring her questions in praxis.