Suspension and Refusal: Revisiting Two Essays by Eve Tuck

GEM Lab Reading Workshop led by Patrick Smith (University of Salford)

A recent photo of the Unangax̂ cemetery at Funter Bay. (Courtesy of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum)

//March 28th, 2024

//5:15-7:30 PM

//GEM Lab

//FB 630.15

This reading workshop returns to two seminal essays by Unangax̂ scholar Eve Tuck, considering the theoretical and political implications of these texts for media scholars and practitioners today. “R-Words: Refusing Research” (from 2014, co-authored with K. Wayne Yang) and “Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities” (from 2009) will provide entry points into larger discussions around a range of topics: the critical valences of Tuck’s concepts of “suspension” and “refusal,” “damaged-centered” research, flawed theories of change, uneven relationships between researchers and communities, extractive risks of research, and alternative “desire-based” research methodologies.

Reading Links:

Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang, "R-Words: Refusing Research" (2014)

Eve Tuck, "Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities" (2009)