Ripples and Rumbles: Subverting Knowing

The Series

Subversion. The dictionary definition is “to turn from below.” At Big Waves, we yearn to turn things …the things that are getting in the way of collective liberation. We work with organizations pursuing that vision, and we focus on the turning. We think about subversion, and we think of “below” as places that are hidden, unspoken, taken for granted, and invisible. Inside ourselves, and in our relationships.

Last year we talked about this in a series of public, recorded conversations we called Ripples and Rumbles. We talked about queerness, power, conflict, and reconciliation. We’ve been thinking about those conversations, and how so many of us sense there is a different leap we can make, a hidden path we can find, beyond all of the big hearted and heavy lifting so many are already joined in. One of the explorations we are most energized by is an exploration of knowing, not knowing, and its realms. What kinds of knowing are prioritized and reproduced, and what kinds are ignored or silenced? How are our efforts to transform affected by this? 

We are exploring this with others again, in a series of public and recorded conversations that we are calling Ripples and Rumbles: Subverting Knowing. It is a five part series, setting the stage first with the story of knowledge as we understand it today, and then considering less dominant forms of knowledge: outsiderness, edge work, disorientation, imagination, and sensual and embodied knowing. We will close with a step back from knowing, to being.

The First Conversation: 

"Everything You Need To Know About Knowing (at least for this series ;)"

For this first conversation in the new Ripples and Rumbles series: Subverting Knowing, we thought we’d talk with someone who’s studied knowing closely, to get a handle on just what it is we are going to be talking about over the course of the series.

Sofía Ortiz-Hinojosa graduated with a PhD in philosophy from MIT and began teaching at Vassar College in 2016. She specializes in philosophy of psychology and psychopathology, epistemology, and Latin American Philosophy. She is the recipient of a Mellon New Directions Fellowship for 2023-2026 for her project entitled, "Mesoamerican Worldviews: How Indigenous Thought Influences Philosophy in Latin America.”

In talking with us about Ripples and Rumbles and how she could help us open it, Sofía offered so many interesting topics and ideas we thought about doing the whole series with her! How do we know what we know? Who decides that? How do we decide who decides? Is scientific knowledge “better” than spiritual or mystical knowledge? How can we disagree better? Why are so many mainstream scientists still dismissing Indigenous knowledge and what’s resulting from that? And much much more.

Please join us on July 25 at 3pm AT for this juicy conversation! There will be opportunity for participants to ask questions throughout.

Link to join will be emailed to registrants in the week of the conversation.