Dr. Margaret Swift
  • home
  • about
  • cv & publications
  • research =
    • ✭ simulating african elephant movements on a fenced landscape ✭
    • mapping waterholes in africa's largest conservation area
    • antelope behaviors on a changing landscape
  • outreach =
    • public talks
    • lesson plans & tutorials
    • teaching statement
    • nsf grfp advice
    • science writing
    • skype a scientist
  • perspectives =
    • those who made me
    • where i live & work
    • decolonization
    • land-grab universities
    • going beyond land acknowledgement
    • asexuality, imposter syndrome, and belonging
    • reading lists
  • art =
    • short stories
    • poetry
    • photography
    • portraits
  • blog

decolonizing my science

I'd like to first acknowledge that (1) this essay exploring my own decolonization journey is ever-evolving, (2) I am not a decolonization "expert" by any means, and (3) I have an immense privilege in stepping into this work by choice instead of by necessity through background, race, culture, or class. Yet, the first place that we of privilege often fail is in letting guilt obstruct growth, so I share this with you anyways, flaws and all.

I first encountered the concept of "decolonization" (the active undoing of colonial systems and ways of thinking) in the spring of 2022 while attending a Duke Ecology seminar given by Dr. Madhusudan Katti. His talk, covering a collaboration with Dr. Christopher Trisos and Dr. Jess Auerbach in 2021 ("Decoloniality and anti-oppressive practices for a more ethical ecology"), called for ecologists to center decolonization in every aspect of our work.
​Ecology as a discipline and the diversity of those who call themselves ecologists have been shaped and held back by often exclusionary Western approaches to knowing and doing ecology. Ecologists must expand their knowledge, both in theory and practice, to incorporate varied perspectives, approaches and interpretations from, with and within the natural environment and across global systems. Trisos et al 2021
I had heard the term "parachute science" before, but after that lecture I had a whole new vocabulary and direction of research to follow on how to be a more ethical scientist. As a savanna ecologist doing research in formerly colonized regions of southern Africa, I realized I must center decolonization in my work.

Ready to learn more, I later read the work of Tuck & Yang, "Decolonization is not a metaphor". In this seminal 2012 essay opening the inaugural issue of Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, Tuck & Yang caution well-meaning academics against the metaphorization of decolonization. It can be very tempting, they warn, to treat decolonization as a mindset, a worldview, or an intellectual broadening, instead of an active dismantling of colonial structures. In the same way that land acknowledgements can easily slide into guilt-assuaging placations with no action or dollars behind them, so too can decolonization be misrepresented as a new buzzword for diversity.
When metaphor invades decolonization, it kills the very possibility of decolonization; it recenters whiteness, it resettles theory, it extends innocence to the settler, it entertains a settler future. Decolonize (a verb) and decolonization (a noun) cannot easily be grafted onto pre-existing discourses/frameworks, even if they are critical, even if they are anti-racist, even if they are justice frameworks.

​The easy absorption, adoption, and transposing of decolonization is yet another form of settler appropriation. When we write about decolonization, we are not offering it as a metaphor; it is not an approximation of other experiences of oppression. Decolonization is not a swappable term for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools. Decolonization doesn’t have a synonym. 
Tuck & Yang 2012
Since reading the well-known Tuck & Yang paper, I have done a lot more thinking, reading, and acting on this subject. In particular, I have tried to center Indigenous expertise in my research materials, thinking deeply about place names and local expertise especially while working on a paper involving historical river networks and waterholes in southern Africa. This, though, is not enough --- I need to work towards going beyond inclusion of Indigenous knowledge towards more land-oriented action and true power sharing. I'm still working on this part.
Colonialism is about access to Indigenous land and the replacement of Indigenous ways of knowing and living. The opposite of colonialism is not inclusion. Adding more Indigenous texts to a syllabus neither impacts land relations nor changes the dominant knowledge paradigm. In fact, using Indigenous knowledge to enrich non-Indigenous learning has been a core component of colonial knowledge systems that require local knowledge to survive and flourish on colonized land. Whenever I hear the phrase “Indigenous voice” instead of terms like “expertise” I know the uneven power dynamics of Western versus non-Western knowledge systems is firmly in place, through inclusion. -- Max Liboiron, 2021
This is a growing and active project that I will add to over the years, but it is important to start decolonizing my work from the very beginning of my career. In their paper, Trisos et al (2021) propose five positive steps a scientist can take to decolonize their work; I hope to address these five steps in the following ways:

  1. decolonize your mind by setting aside time to broaden my own knowledge of decolonization practices, the historic harms of ecology research, and different ways of knowing.
  2. know your histories​ by learning (and re-learning) the history of the peoples that inhabit the lands I'm researching, not just the animals and plants, as well as learning and using the Indigenous names for topographical features and being thoughtful in the way these are included on maps and figures.
  3. decolonize access by asking local experts how I can best share my own skills in an exchange of knowledge, not just a take. Examples of this include presenting on my research to local scientists; running a short workshop on R or data science. 
  4. decolonize expertise by actively seeking out Indigenous and local scientists' work from which I can learn, and which I can cite in my own research (not just papers from colonial viewpoints). 
  5. practice ethical ecology in inclusive teams ​by always including local scientists as collaborators in my publications, and by using the platforms I have to share decoloniality aims with other scientists (mainly through my writing or by organizing workshops or seminars).
I think their list can be enhanced by the following three pillars of action that broaden the circle of decolonization impacts beyond my own mind and research:
  1. advocate for decolonization of science beyond my own research, through articles like this one, departmental workshops with decolonization experts, and other future science communication work.
  2. donate time, energy, and money towards landback movements in order to make the theoretical actual, and
  3. be uncomfortable; if I'm comfortable with where I'm at and what I'm doing, it's simply not enough.

action plan

If you've read this far (wow! who are you?!), I'll just end with a personal note listing my actions and pledges in decolonization. This list isn't meant to be a "look at me, how well I'm doing!" (hence why it's at the very very end), but instead a way to hold myself accountable on what actions I'm truly taking towards a decolonized ecology. I figure, if I update my webpage and see that this list hasn't changed in 6 months, I need to do more.

Fall 2024 goals
  • I have been invited to give a talk at the Cornell DNRE weekly symposium in October. The organizers have specifically requested that I weave in my thoughts about ecological ethics and decolonization of research.
  • I hope to talk to both the ecology and DNRE departments at Cornell about setting up a graduate student-led Decolonization Workshop this fall or next spring. I think it's a great organizational opportunity for grad students, and it went really well at Duke so I'd like to spread the word.
  • I missed the local Cinemapolis showing of "Fancy Dance", but I would like to view it when it's out in public. From the Ithaca Voice: "The film centers around the disappearance of a Native American woman, an ongoing crisis in North America. Tremblay said she hopes the film’s message will spark more conversation around the topic. She said she also hopes the film will prompt the public to consider the safety of American Indian populations in the U.S., and the history that could be left untold if those populations dissipate."
2024
  • June: Attended a documentary screening and Q&A on local divisions within the Cayuga Nation and its leadership, shown at Cinemapolis, with a $20 donation towards the Gayogohó:nǫˀ Learning Project.
2023
  • June: Donated $50 to the American Indian College Fund (AICF)
  • Sept: Researched and updated my land acknowledgements page to reflect the history of the Gayogohó:nǫˀ people, the original stewards of the lands where I now live; purchased and read the excellent "The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫɁ People in the Cayuga Lake Region: A Brief History" by Kurt Jordan.
  • Oct: Researched and launched a page on land-grab universities to learn where Cornell's land and funding originated; donated $25 to the Gayogohó:nǫˀ Learning Project; set up a $10 monthly donation to LANDBACK; attended local lectures by Kurt Jordan and Robin Wall Kimmerer on the history of Cornell's land-grab/land-grant status and on TEK and "what the Earth asks of us", respectively.
  • Nov: Set up $7 monthly donation to AICF; donated $35 to the Oglala Lakota College.
2022
  • May: Helped organize the People & Nature seminar for the Nicholas School. In this process, I did a lot of research on the practice of land acknowledgements and presented an extended land acknowledgement for the seminar. Following the incredible advice of Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, I stared down the audience and gave them five minutes to take out their phones and donate money to (or follow on social media) five Indigenous creators or landback organizations. I am not a confrontational person, so this was a nerve-wracking but incredibly effective step!
  • Nov: Organized a hybrid half-day Decolonizing Ecology workshop for Dr. Madhu Katti's return to Duke, which thirty people attended. It was a LOT of work, but really rewarding to see all my colleagues (from undergrads to the chair of the Biology department!) in one room, committing part of their weekend towards work and growth in decolonization.
  • Donated ~$150 total across LANDBACK, the American Indian College Fund, the Native American Rights Fund, the OBSN, and various Native creators' mutual aid requests. It's not much, and even now I hate to talk about money, but I think it's important to not hide behind propriety and modesty here. I hope to at least double this next year.
Picture
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​Margaret Swift
Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellow
Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health
Cornell University
​Ithaca, New York, USA
  • home
  • about
  • cv & publications
  • research =
    • ✭ simulating african elephant movements on a fenced landscape ✭
    • mapping waterholes in africa's largest conservation area
    • antelope behaviors on a changing landscape
  • outreach =
    • public talks
    • lesson plans & tutorials
    • teaching statement
    • nsf grfp advice
    • science writing
    • skype a scientist
  • perspectives =
    • those who made me
    • where i live & work
    • decolonization
    • land-grab universities
    • going beyond land acknowledgement
    • asexuality, imposter syndrome, and belonging
    • reading lists
  • art =
    • short stories
    • poetry
    • photography
    • portraits
  • blog