Can academic writing transform epistemicide to emancipation?

Abstract

Coercive Management Behavior (CMB) exists in universities as it does in cooperate entities. Consequently, CMB constrains research productivity and pedagogic commitments and can induce epistemicide. In response to CMB, this study sets forth two objectives. Firstly, the analysis aims to discover if academic writing can constrain staff’s experiences of epistemicide. Secondly, it aims to discover if academic writing has power to transform staff’s experiences of epistemicide to emancipation. Accordingly, a two-part research question is put forth: Can academic writing constrain and transform experiences of epistemicide into emancipation? To address this question, the study adopts a qualitative line of inquiry, so data collection involved a review of literature theorizing CMB, epistemicide, and writing for emancipation. In addition, secondary sources, including journal articles, PhD theses, MA dissertations, and digital media, are scrutinized. Beyond this, the study employs Discourse, epistemological, and ontological frameworks to elucidate epistemicide and writing as a tool for epistemic emancipation. The results reveal that scholarly writing transforms staff’s experiences of attempted epistemicide, including collegial ostracization and ethnic bullying, into epistemological emancipation. For instance, writing in academic platforms enables CMB targets to redirect their Discourse, epistemic, and ontological attentiveness toward knowledge generation. Moreover, scholastic dialogues embedded in peer reviews constitute safe spaces for targeted departmental members. Thus, academic writing enables ostracized scholars to transcend office borders by elaborating knowledge systems in ways that make them feel emancipated. In conclusion, experiences of CMB and attempted epistemicide are unavoidable for some low-ranking scholars. Regardless, academic writing emancipates targets’ epistemologies, ontologies, and Discourses despite sustained opposition.