Intersectionality
Origins, Contestations, Horizons
1st Edition
Published on 1. November 2016
312 pages
978-0-8032-9664-0 (ISBN)
Description
A 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Intersectionality intervenes in the field of intersectionality studies: the integrative examination of the effects of racial, gendered, and class power on people's lives. While "intersectionality" tends to circulate merely as a buzzword, Anna Carastathis joins other critical voices in urging a more careful reading. Challenging the narratives of arrival that surround it, Carastathis argues that intersectionality is a horizon, illuminating ways of thinking that have yet to be realized; consequently, calls to "go beyond" intersectionality are premature. A provisional interpretation of intersectionality can disorient habits of essentialism, categorical purity, and prototypicality and overcome dynamics of segregation and subordination in political movements.
Through a close reading of critical race theorist KimberlE Williams Crenshaw's germinal texts, published more than twenty-five years ago, Carastathis urges analytic clarity, contextual rigor, and a politicized, historicized understanding of this pervasive concept. Intersectionality's roots in social justice movements and critical intellectual projects-specifically black feminism-must be retraced and synthesized with a decolonial analysis so that its potential to actualize coalitions can be enacted.
Intersectionality intervenes in the field of intersectionality studies: the integrative examination of the effects of racial, gendered, and class power on people's lives. While "intersectionality" tends to circulate merely as a buzzword, Anna Carastathis joins other critical voices in urging a more careful reading. Challenging the narratives of arrival that surround it, Carastathis argues that intersectionality is a horizon, illuminating ways of thinking that have yet to be realized; consequently, calls to "go beyond" intersectionality are premature. A provisional interpretation of intersectionality can disorient habits of essentialism, categorical purity, and prototypicality and overcome dynamics of segregation and subordination in political movements.
Through a close reading of critical race theorist KimberlE Williams Crenshaw's germinal texts, published more than twenty-five years ago, Carastathis urges analytic clarity, contextual rigor, and a politicized, historicized understanding of this pervasive concept. Intersectionality's roots in social justice movements and critical intellectual projects-specifically black feminism-must be retraced and synthesized with a decolonial analysis so that its potential to actualize coalitions can be enacted.
Reviews / Votes
"This is, perhaps, Carastathis's greatest insight: she urges us to think about intersectionality as a 'profoundly destabilizing, productively disorienting, provisional concept' whose work remains to be done. In this account, intersectionality refers to our desire to keep dreaming of a more just social world."-Jennifer C. Nash, American Quarterly"Intersectionality follows a clear theoretical arc and stages multiple interventions throughout, making it a resource for one well versed in the field or encountering it for the first time."-Desiree Valentine, Critical Philosophy of Race "Anna Carastathis confronts an enduring obstacle to taking up intersectionality's potential: she illustrates how an ongoing, monist fragmentation of identities, communities, politics, and perceptions buttresses power hierarchies and reinforces exclusion by design."-Vivian M. May, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy "Better theory is what Carastathis wants, and that implies for her a more fundamental critique of naturalized and essentialized groups and a 'profoundly destabilizing, productively disorienting, provisional concept that disaggregates false unities, undermines false universalisms, and unsettles false entitlements.'"-Myra Marx Ferree, Contemporary Sociology "Carastathis's citational practices and the subsequent conversations she generates are a vital intervention in this current moment in academia. For both novices and experts in black feminist theories, this book is a crucial review of the literature for all academics at any stage of their career, especially those scholars naming their work as 'intersectional.'"-R. Aliah Ajamoughli, Journal of Folklore Research "Anna Carastathis's careful and sustained engagement with KimberlE Crenshaw's work is uniquely illuminating and helpful."-Zenzele Isoke, author of Urban Black Women and the Politics of Resistance
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Lincoln
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 illustration
File size
1,86 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-8032-9664-0 (9780803296640)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2019
University of Nebraska Press
€32.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
11/2016
University of Nebraska Press
€53.50
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Anna Carastathis is the codirector of the Feminist Autonomous Centre for research in Athens, Greece, where she coordinates the research area, Intersectionality: Critiques of Power and Coalitional Politics. Carastathis is the coauthor of Reproducing Refugees: PhotographIa of a Crisis.
Content
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Intersectionality, Black Feminist Thought, and Women-of-Color Organizing
2. Basements and Intersections
3. Intersectionality as a Provisional Concept
4. Critical Engagements with Intersectionality
5. Identities as Coalitions
6. Intersectionality and Decolonial Feminism
Conclusion
References
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Intersectionality, Black Feminist Thought, and Women-of-Color Organizing
2. Basements and Intersections
3. Intersectionality as a Provisional Concept
4. Critical Engagements with Intersectionality
5. Identities as Coalitions
6. Intersectionality and Decolonial Feminism
Conclusion
References
Index
