COM2614
ASSIGNMENT 3 SEMESTER 1 2025
UNIQUE NO.
DUE DATE: 22 MAY 2025
, COM2614 – Communication in Contemporary Society
Assignment 3 (Portfolio) – Semester 1, 2025
*Due Date: 22 May 2025
Part A: Reflection Entry
Date: 15 April 2025
Reading/Video/Topic: Epistemic Violence and Communication
A. Initial Reactions (234 words)
Engaging with this week’s topic on epistemic violence stirred a blend of discomfort,
awareness, and deep personal reflection. Although the term epistemic violence was
unfamiliar to me, the concept felt all too familiar. I began to recognise how certain
knowledge systems—particularly those rooted in Indigenous, oral, or non-Western
traditions—are routinely dismissed or excluded in academic and institutional spaces.
What was most unsettling was realising how I had unconsciously accepted this
exclusion as “normal” or objective.
Spivak’s argument that even well-meaning individuals can perpetuate epistemic
violence by speaking for marginalised voices was particularly challenging. I had never
considered that by retelling stories through dominant academic frameworks, one might
inadvertently silence those very voices they seek to uplift. This prompted me to reflect
on my reliance on Western theorists and the uncritical authority often granted to them.
As someone from a multilingual African background, the discussion around language hit
home. English dominates academic communication, but this comes at the cost of
excluding rich, culturally embedded expressions such as proverbs, oral histories, and
song. These are central to African ways of knowing, yet are rarely recognised as valid
forms of knowledge.
This content has reshaped how I understand communication—not merely as the
transmission of information, but as a deeply political act that determines whose
knowledge is legitimised and whose is ignored.
ASSIGNMENT 3 SEMESTER 1 2025
UNIQUE NO.
DUE DATE: 22 MAY 2025
, COM2614 – Communication in Contemporary Society
Assignment 3 (Portfolio) – Semester 1, 2025
*Due Date: 22 May 2025
Part A: Reflection Entry
Date: 15 April 2025
Reading/Video/Topic: Epistemic Violence and Communication
A. Initial Reactions (234 words)
Engaging with this week’s topic on epistemic violence stirred a blend of discomfort,
awareness, and deep personal reflection. Although the term epistemic violence was
unfamiliar to me, the concept felt all too familiar. I began to recognise how certain
knowledge systems—particularly those rooted in Indigenous, oral, or non-Western
traditions—are routinely dismissed or excluded in academic and institutional spaces.
What was most unsettling was realising how I had unconsciously accepted this
exclusion as “normal” or objective.
Spivak’s argument that even well-meaning individuals can perpetuate epistemic
violence by speaking for marginalised voices was particularly challenging. I had never
considered that by retelling stories through dominant academic frameworks, one might
inadvertently silence those very voices they seek to uplift. This prompted me to reflect
on my reliance on Western theorists and the uncritical authority often granted to them.
As someone from a multilingual African background, the discussion around language hit
home. English dominates academic communication, but this comes at the cost of
excluding rich, culturally embedded expressions such as proverbs, oral histories, and
song. These are central to African ways of knowing, yet are rarely recognised as valid
forms of knowledge.
This content has reshaped how I understand communication—not merely as the
transmission of information, but as a deeply political act that determines whose
knowledge is legitimised and whose is ignored.
