Walter D. Mignolo (born May 1, 1941) is an Argentine semiotician (

School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (, EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The school awards Master and PhD degrees alone and conjo ...

) and professor at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

who has published extensively on

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

and

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...

, and worked on different aspects of the modern and colonial world, exploring concepts such as

decoloniality Decoloniality () is a school of thought that aims to Delinking, delink from Eurocentrism, Eurocentric Episteme, knowledge hierarchies and Being, ways of being in the world in order to enable other forms of existence on Earth. It critiques the p ...

, global coloniality, the geopolitics of knowledge, transmodernity, border thinking, and pluriversality. He is one of the founders of the modernity/coloniality critical school of thought.

Work

Mignolo received his BA in Philosophy from the

National University of Córdoba The National University of Córdoba (), is a public university located in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. Founded in 1613, the university is the oldest in Argentina, the third oldest university of the Americas, with the first university being ...

, Argentina in 1969. In 1974 he obtained his Ph.D. from the

École des Hautes Études École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

, Paris. He subsequently taught at the Universities of

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, and

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Since January 1993, Walter D. Mignolo has been the William H. Wannamaker Professor of Literature and Romance Studies at

, USA, and has joint appointments in Cultural Anthropology and Romance Studies. Mignolo co-edits the web dossier, ''Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise''. He is the academic director of "Duke in the Andes", an interdisciplinary program in Latin American and Andean Studies in

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

, Ecuador, at the

Politecnica Salesiana University The Politecnica Salesiana University in Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It a ...

. Since 2000, he has directed the Center for Global Studies and the Humanities, a research unit within the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies at Duke. He has also been named Permanent Researcher at Large at the in

Quito, Ecuador Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

. Recently, Mignolo has ventured into what he calls " decolonial aesthetics" writing on artists Pedro Lasch, Fred Wilson, and

Tanja Ostojić Tanja Ostojić (born 19 August 1972 in Užice, Titovo Užice, Yugoslavia) is a feminist performance artist. Her work draws inspiration from her own experience as a non-European Union citizen, a traveler and female artist. Ostojić has lived in ...

. He contributed to ''Black Mirror/Espejo Negro'', a book on the works of Pedro Lasch, edited by Lasch, published by

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...

Publications

*1992: ''The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Colonization and the Discontinuity of the Classical Tradition'', Renaissance Quarterly. Vol. 45, No. 4 (Winter, 1992), pp. 808–828. The University of Chicago Press. *1994: ''Writing Without Words: Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica and the Andes'', co-edited with Elizabeth H. Boone. *1994-95: ''The Americas: Loci of Enunciations and Imaginary Constructions''. *1995 ''The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, & Colonization'', University of Michigan Press. Katherine Singer Kovács Prize from the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "str ...

. *1999: ''Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking'' *2001: ''Capitalismo y Geopolitica del Conocimiento: El Eurocentrismo y La Filosofia de La Liberacion En El Debate Intelectual Contemporaneo,'' Coleccion Plural by Ulises Barrera and Walter Mignolo. *2001
Coloniality of Power and Subalternity
in ''The Latin American Subaltern Studies Reader'' Duke University Press: Durham and London, 2001 *2002: ''Vicissitudes of Theory''. Contributors: Alberto Moreiras, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Walter D. Mignolo, Slavoj Zizek, Rey Chow, Ralph A. Litzinger. *2003: 2nd edition: ''The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, Colonization''. In Spanish: ''El lado más oscuro del renacimiento: alfabetización, territorialidad y colonización''. http://www.unicauca.edu.co/editorial/, Popayán, Cauca *2003: ''Historias Locales / Disenos Globales: Colonialidad, Conocimientos Subalternos Y Pensamiento Fronterizo (Cuestiones De Antagonismo)'' 456 p., Akal Ediciones Sa. *2005: ''The Idea of Latin America'', Frantz Fanon Prize for Outstanding Book in Caribbean Thoughts by The Caribbean Philosophical Association. *2006: ''Interculturalidad, descolonizacion del estado y del conocimiento/ Interculturality, Descolonization of The State and Knowledge'' with Catherine Walsh and Alvaro Garcia Linera. 123p. *2007: ''Cultural Studies'' on "Globalization and the Decolonial Option." with Arturo Escobar 21/2-3, March. *2007: ''Geopolíticas de la Animación,'' Marco, Centro Andalúz de Arte Contemporáneo. *2008: ''Rereading the Black Legend: The Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires.'' Margaret R. Greer, Maureen Quilligan and Walter Mignolo, Eds. *2009:
Dispensable and Bare Lives: Coloniality and the Hidden Political/Economic Agenda of Modernity
'' In Historicizing Anti-Semitism, Proceedings of the International Conference on the Post-September 11 New Ethnic/Racial Configurations in Europe and the United States: The Case of Anti-Semitism Maison des Science de l'Home (MSH) Paris, June 29–30, 2007. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Vol. 7: Iss. 2, Article 7. *2011: ''The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options (Latin America Otherwise)''. Duke University Press Books, 458 p. *2018: ''On Decoloniality: Concept, Analytics, Praxis'' co-authored with Catherine Walsh. Duke University Press *2021: ''The Politics of Decolonial Investigations (On Decoloniality)''. Duke University Press

References

External links

Page at Duke University

Biography
at Duke University.
waltermignolo.com

Center for Global Studies and the Humanities at Duke University
* http://www.ibraaz.org/essays/59/ Essay: RE:EMERGING, DECENTRING AND DELINKING Shifting the Geographies of Sensing, Believing and Knowing on IBRAAZ 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mignolo, Walter Living people Latin Americanists Duke University faculty Indiana University faculty Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine emigrants to the United States Place of birth missing (living people) Argentine semioticians University of Michigan faculty School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences alumni 1941 births National University of Córdoba alumni