Quiet Methodologies: Humility in the Humanities - Softcover

Bost, Suzanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1517918219 ISBN 13: 9781517918217

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 2025

Synopsis

Reimagining humanities scholarship with humility and inclusive attention

How might foregrounding the writings of colonized peoples transform the ways we work in the humanities? In an era dominated by loud political rhetoric, Suzanne Bost advocates for quieter modes of scholarship: intellectual humility rather than ego, collaboration and conversation rather than singular argumentation, continual reflection and revision rather than defensiveness, and a willingness to believe in different ways of being and knowing rather than adhering to academic norms. With Quiet Methodologies, she demonstrates practical decolonial scholarship and proposes alternative approaches for fostering meaningful engagement.

Turning to feminist, queer, and decolonial writings from Gloria AnzaldÚa, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Audre Lorde, and many others, Bost reflects on what we do when we work with literature, culture, and ideas. She weaves together multiple voices, methods of writing, and culturally diverse epistemologies and uses creative devices such as collage, her own original poetry, revision, lists, images, and conversation to disengage academic thought and writing from colonial theories and archives that have passed as neutral. Eschewing conventional monograph formats, her work embraces a reciprocal and heterogeneous learning process with profound ethical implications.

Part of a movement of reimagining research and education through care, Quiet Methodologies is a powerful exploration of the possibilities of criticism during crises. It encourages readers to be visionary and pragmatic, challenging current conditions and offering alternative ideas for the future of the humanities.

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About this title

About the Author

Suzanne Bost is professor of English at Loyola University Chicago. She is author of several books, including Shared Selves: Latinx Memoir and Ethical Alternatives to Humanism.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1517918219
• ISBN 13: 9781517918217
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176