This book contributes to a much-needed critical engagement with peace scholarship, while addressing interconnections between racism and colonialism on one hand, and peace and conflict studies on the other. In so doing, Dr. Jang and Dr. Cordero reach fundamental insights into epistemic inequality and epistemic justice in the field of peace and conflict studies. This book is thus an invaluable contribution to this field and its place between social studies and the humanities.

Dr. Egidio Alcides De Bustamante Azevedo

Cátedra UNESCO de Filosofía para la Paz

Universitat Jaume I, Spain

With remarkable critical adeptness, artistry and adroitness, the authors of this intellectual feast, Carlos Cordero and I Jin Jang, unmask the epistemological blindness to race, racism and colonialism in peace studies and advocate the insights from Africana philosophy as its cure.

Alberto Gomes

Emeritus Professor

La Trobe University

Australia

Providing a genealogical excavation of the foundational narratives of peace studies, I Jin Jang and Carlos Cordero lay bare the epistemic and conceptual problems that arise when the discipline (and beyond) separates race from its colonial roots. Inspired by the Africana critical philosophical tradition, this dynamic duo puts race, racism and colonialism at the center of their disruptive inquiry for rethinking violence and reimagining freedom and notions of being human. An incredible journey into the humanization of the world, this work shows how the problem of the color line is ‘our’ problem, one where race becomes a “rallying site of resistance” for creating “new human relations.”

Dr. Jennifer Murphy

International Studies Department

University of San Francisco