“Political ecology research often contends for the elevation of anti-imperial, post and increasingly de-colonial epistemologies of the South. However, this is often done through the rather contradictory use of imperial, colonial epistemologies of the North, even if unintentionally so. Taking a cue from De Sousa Santos (2014: 6), we seek to bring in the “world of passions, intuitions, feelings, emotions, affections, beliefs, faiths, values, myths, and the world of the unsayable” to the “highly intellectualized and rationalized” field of research. We consider Epistemologies of the South as those that embrace emotional, spiritual, and embodied ways of knowing, doing, and being - in contrast to northern ontologies that rely only on imperial, rational, reductionist, and objective principles. In this regard, we explore our diverse positionalities as students and early career researchers (ECRs) who must operate within the confines of academia - the Master’s house (Lorde, 1984), rooted in epistemologies of the North. Recognising this friction, this session aims to provide a generative and reflective space for participants to think through the epistemological and ontological struggles of being human and doing research within the confines of the university. Through the use of embodied practice and emotion as tools, we seek to unearth the tensions and discomfort of undertaking academic research and discuss the possibilities and limitations of institutional transformation. Ultimately, the session hopes to produce an opensource toolkit that will enable participants to initiate these important conversations at their own institutions."

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