Reflections of an international graduate student in a North American Communication Department

Abstract

This essay examines various aspects of my intellectual experience as an international graduate student studying in a North American university grappling with questions of postcolonial life in Africa. Specifically, I examine the intellectual tensions of dealing with the underdeveloped questions of colonialism in communication theory. The article draws on work calling for the de-Westernization and decolonization of communication theory. While the call for decentering ‘academic Eurocentrism’ is important, it is pertinent not to erect another epistemic fundamentalism in its place. Overall, the article calls attention to epistemic plurality and why communication scholarship needs to seriously consider what Comaroff and Comaroff (2012) call ‘Theory from the South’.