Hitting The Books: Dr. Karanja Keita Carroll

Author: Dr. Karanja Keita Carroll,  assistant professor of Black Studies

Title: “African-centered Ways of Knowing and Being in the World:  Worldview, Epistemology and Constructions of Knowledge”

How long have you been working on it? 

I’ve always had an interest in the intersection of culture and epistemology, starting with an earlier article on the role of research methodology in Africana Studies. By distinguishing between European-oriented and African-oriented worldview assumptions it became evident that the European-oriented assumption of “objectivity” has continuously and negatively impacted the accurate interpretation of Africana life, history and culture, due to the necessity of separation and detachment which is an outgrowth of a uniquely European-oriented orientation to the universe.

Publication date: 2013

Theme: This article will engage questions of epistemology especially as they relate to the African worldview framework.

What makes it unique? 

This article will build upon my previous work on the African worldview and its impact upon methodological questions in Africana/Black Studies.  In my previous work I have broadly engaged questions of epistemology, especially the distinctions between European-oriented and African-oriented epistemological assumptions. However, this article will focus primarily on questions of epistemology as it relates to processes of knowledge acquisition and the accompanying processes of knowledge transmission.

I’ll be building off the work of scholars within African-centered philosophy and social theory who previously engaged these ideas in the 1980s and 1990s. However, it is my intention to synthesize their work and expand upon it as it relates to my previous work on the African worldview framework in Africana/Black Studies.