We begin by unravelling what it means to be “from” somewhere you don’t quite belong to. Drawing from Hall, Gilroy, and our own framing of “postcolonial orphanhood,” we name the longing, code-switching, and dislocation that haunts diasporic identity.
This session traces how race is read, misread, and internalised – especially in missionary or mixed-ethnic contexts. You bring in your concept of the “epistemic violence of belonging,” and we explore how whiteness, brownness, and blackness are not only social categories but embodied scripts.
We turn to the role of religion in shaping diasporic subjectivity. Using your critique of missionary erasure and inherited theological dissonance, we ask: what happens when faith becomes both anchor and weapon? What do we reclaim, discard, or reimagine?
Finally, we map the ethics of naming our own location, not as fixed identity but as fragile claim. Drawing on your work on narrative as epistemic justice, we practise the art of speaking across contradiction, without resolving it.
This 4-week Action Learning Set runs as a live, online cohort. Weekly 90-minute sessions blend critical discussion, reflective writing, and embodied noticing. The space is lightly held, trauma-aware, and rooted in dialogue, not diagnosis. Participants also receive access to a private digital space for gentle exchange and curated readings.
Tone: philosophically rigorous, emotionally spacious, politically grounded.
diaspora postcolonial belonging religious rupture hybridity narrative identity racialised subjectivity migration & meaning
