A provocative theoretical synthesis by renowned folklorist and anthropologist Charles L. Briggs Unlearning questions intellectual foundations and charts new paths forward. Briggs argues through an expansive look back at his own influential works as well as critical readings of the field that scholars can disrupt existing social and discourse theories across disciplines when they collaborate with theorists whose insights are not constrained by the bounds of scholarship. ampnbsp Eschewing narrow Eurocentric modes of explanation and research foci Briggs brings together colonialism health media and psychoanalysis to rethink classic work on poetics and performance that revolutionized linguistic anthropology folkloristics media studies communication and other fields. Beginning with a candid memoir that credits the mentors whose disconcerting insights prompted him to upend existing scholarly approaches Briggs combines his childhood experiences in New Mexico with his work in graduate school his ethnography in Venezuela working with Indigenous peoples and his contemporary workwhich is heavily weighted in medical folklore. ampnbsp Unlearning offers students emerging scholars and veteran researchers alike a guide for turning ethnographic objects into provocations for transforming timeworn theories and objects of analysis into sources of scholarly creativity deep personal engagement and efforts to confront unconscionable racial inequities. It will be of significant interest to folklorists anthropologists and social theorists and will stimulate conversations across these disciplines. ampnbsp