Darien Pollock: What is street knowledge?

HUMA African Epistemologies Advanced Seminar Series

Speaker: Darien Pollock (Harvard University, United States)

Introduction: How does social change happen in a political arrangement? I argue that societies are transformed by the acceptance of "hidden scripts" that challenge the legitimacy of the dominant narratives accepted by the status quo. This "street knowledge," as I term it, is crucial for not only understanding the nature of a public sphere but also for predicting the evolution of the "mainstream" discourse in a political arrangement. 

About the speaker: Darien Pollock is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University, United States, specialising in social ontology, critical theory, ethics and philosophy of race. The core of his research centres on developing a philosophical method that he calls "street philosophy." This upcoming academic year, he will serve as a Graduate Fellow in the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. In addition to his work as an academic philosopher, Darien is also the founder and president of the Street Philosophy Institute, Inc. (SPI), a Massachusetts based think-tank dedicated to promoting research in public philosophy and civic engagement.