Description
Taking up McKittrick's concept of "unorthodox practices of belonging," this paper explores translation as a way of connecting to and through Black feminist thought from East Asia. Rather than seeking direct parallels or conventional social scientific comparisons, I propose translation itself as a site of connection to compare otherwise. Drawing on Glissant's refusal of "geographic belonging that are tied to racist and colonial knowledge systems," I examine how translation can be a practice of pluriversal politics. By engaging with the praxis/practice of reading-through Black (feminist) thought, translation emerges as an embodied practice that challenges colonial geographies and connects different parts of the globe through coloniality. The paper interweaves memories, narratives, critical engagement with translations of Black feminist texts in South Korea, and literary translations, exploring what it means to translate "black worlds and black ways of being" across different contexts for worlding otherwise. By practicing translation as a practice of unorthodox belonging, this work imagines possibilities for connections against and beyond colonial and racial geographies.
