Faculty Book Publications

Dr. Bernd Reiter, Professor of Spanish

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SBN 9781032146027
December 31, 2021 Forthcoming by Routledge
168 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations

In Decolonizing the Social Sciences and the Humanities Bernd Reiter contributes to the ongoing efforts to decolonize the social sciences and humanities, by arguing that true decolonization implies a liberation from the elite culture that Western civilization has perpetually promoted.

Reiter brings together lessons learned from field research on a Colombian indigenous society, a maroon society, also in Colombia, from Afro-Brazilian religion, from Spanish Anarchism, and from German Council democracy, and from analyzing non-Western ontologies and epistemologies in general. He claims that once these lessons are absorbed, it becomes clear that Western civilization has advanced individualization and elitism. The chapters present the case that human beings are able to rule themselves, and have done so for some 300,000 years, before the Neolithic Revolution. Self-rule and rule by councils is our default option once we rid ourselves of leaders and rulers. Reiter concludes by considering the massive manipulations and the heinous divisions that political elitism, dressed in the form of representative democracy, has brought us, and implores us to seek true freedom and democracy by liberating ourselves from political elites and taking on political responsibilities.

Decolonizing the Social Sciences and the Humanities is written for students, scholars, and social justice activists across cultural anthropology, sociology, geography, Latin American Studies, Africana Studies, and political science.

Decolonizing the Classics Book Series

The critique of colonialism and post-colonialism has by now been broadly disseminated and understood. The logical next step in moving beyond colonialism in thought, research, and academic practice is to engage in decolonization efforts. This is currently occurring. However, most of these efforts are still based on the critique of Western centrism and its universalist claims.

Instead of adding another layer of critique to Western and northern intellectual domination and epistemological hegemony, Decolonizing the Classics actively inserts non-Western voices from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific into the canon of classic and seminal works currently taught around the globe.

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ISBN 9780367434243
March 1, 2022 Forthcoming by Routledge
320 Pages

Jacob Gorender's (1922-2013) 1978 book, Colonial Slavery (O Escravismo Colonial), comes alive for English-language readers thanks to Bernd Reiter and Alejandro Reyes' brilliant translation.

Gorender argued that slave-holding societies produced an economic system sui generis, not fitting into any of the established societal categories offered by Karl Marx and Max Weber. As such, Gorender proposed a theory of colonial slavery as the structuring force of slave-holding societies. For him, slave-holding societies are different from other societies in that slavery structured them differently. This is of the utmost relevance to this day as it allows for a new and different way to explain contemporary racial inequalities in post-slavery societies. An accomplished interpreter of Brazilian social formation, Gorender was motivated by the need to understand the historical roots of class domination and the emergence of Brazilian capitalist society. His presentation of rich historical data, rigorous theoretical and analytical framework, and militant action as an active member of the Brazilian Communist Party are the hallmarks of his writing.

Colonial Slavery: An Abridged Translation is a must-read for researchers, teachers, and students of history, sociology, economics, politics, as well as activists of the Black movement and other movements committed to anti-racism.

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