On Blackness, Liveliness, and What It Means to Be Human

In “No Humans Involved: An Open Letter to My Colleagues,” Jamaican writer and theorist Sylvia Wynter critiques the social and human sciences for perpetuating social hierarchies, particularly through the Western humanist framing of “Man” as the universal representation of humanity. This talk extends Wynter’s critique to human development and academic knowledge production, arguing that Black specificity can create new possibilities for Black being.