Jonathan Wurtz
Es profesor asistente de filosofía en la Universidad de Guam. Su investigación se divide en dos proyectos separados pero interrelacionados. Por un lado, se preocupan por descubrir las diversas estrategias que los grupos y discursos dominantes despliegan para intensificar su propio poder, especialmente dentro de los contextos políticos de racismo y colonialismo, a través de conceptos contemporáneos de infancia. Este lado de su investigación también se ocupa de construir una metafísica de la infancia que pueda desarmar la función de autoperpetuación y automejora de las estructuras de poder actuales. Por otro lado, la investigación de Jonathan también se preocupa por cómo pensar y desplegar en la práctica el P4C como una práctica antirracista y decolonial. Este lado de su investigación actualmente está tratando de repensar el alcance normativo y los límites de la comunidad de investigación para comprender, primero, cómo reafirma las desigualdades estructurales sistémicas a pesar de su proyecto fundamentalmente emancipatorio, y segundo, cómo podemos reestructurar la comunidad de investigación para el en aras de empoderar a los jóvenes marginados. Además del lado académico de este proyecto, Jonathan también está trabajando actualmente con la Universidad de Guam, el Departamento de Educación de Guam y maestros locales en la isla para efectuar cambios estructurales en el sistema educativo colonial a través de P4C.
Jonathan Wurtz
An Inquiry on Race and P4/wC: Contextualizing the role of philosophy for/with children as an anti-racist project
This presentation invites P4/wC practitioners to reflect on their pedagogical and philosophical practices from the lens of critical race theory and afro-pessimism. It specifically encourages participants to use the CRT and afro-pessimist paradigms to reflect on how their community of inquiry can, on the one hand, reaffirm systemic and racially laden power dynamics and, on the other hand, cultivate an anti-racist project from within the broader context of oppression students of color occupy. To aid participants into this crucially important discussion of P4C and race, this presentation is divided into two parts.
The first part offers a brief overview of critical race theory, its rationality, and urgency, as well as some criticism it might raise against traditional Lipmanian P4C and Community of Inquiry. We will begin with an analysis of Dereck Bell’s “permanence of racism” thesis that treats anti-Black racism as a fundamental and structural element of contemporary everyday life in the US. Following a brief overview of Bell’s thesis, we will contextualize it within the narrower theoretical and practical landscape of P4C through the work of Darren Chetty who criticizes P4C for de-historicizing its philosophical concept and activities – which in turn reaffirm the current white supremacist norms.
While the thesis of racism’s permanence might look like a pessimistic admission of defeat, Bell argues that it is only once we have accepted this reality that we can begin the project of anti-racism. As a result, once we have gained an understanding of the permanence thesis and its application to P4C, the presentation will invite participants to reflect on the value of P4C for anti-racism. It will specifically encourage thinking and discussion about the anti-racist capacities of P4C by drawing inspiration from contemporary Black anti-racist projects. By specifically looking at the critical race theory and afro-pessimist respective literatures, I draw three important concepts that can help P4/wC practitioners cultivate an anti-racist community of Inquiry from within the bleakness of the permanence thesis. These are: 1) Locality, 2) Social Death, and 3) Refusal. Our goal as a community of inquiry will then be to figure out how these three concepts can help us deploy activities in and affirm structural changes to the Community of Inquiry such that it can become an anti-racist space of learning and dialogue.