Activist Listening: Insurgent Decoloniality in Times and Spaces of Violence by Freya Zinovieff

Many Congratulations to Freya Zinovieff who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation “Activist Listening: Insurgent Decoloniality in Times and Spaces of Violence,” a reflection on the potential of listening in our turbulent times.  The thesis will be available soon through SFU libraries but for now, here is her abstract:

“Activist Listening: Insurgent Decoloniality in Times and Spaces of Violence critically examines the activist potential of listening to interrogate the question: “of what utility is my listening when a colonial genocide is happening in real-time?” To answer this question, the research advances novel theoretical and methodological frameworks for settlers attempting ethical praxis from within the military colonial academic industry. These frameworks aim towards decolonial insurgency as a practice that seeks material change through small acts of risk and solidarity. The research differentiates between decolonization practices and decolonial knowledge production as critique that speaks directly to the hegemonic systems of power rooted in the ongoing practices and residues of the British colonial imperial project. Within this frame of understanding, listening is mobilized as a feminist project that expands approaches to praxis as well as discourse around the sonic archive and the role of the listener to bear witness to ongoing colonial violence. The research expands the potential of decolonial methods as embodied, sensory practice, and pushes the parameters of sound studies’ engagement with decolonial theory.”

Thanks to everyone on the examining committee:

Image: Freya Zinovieff’s PhD defense, screen capture.