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“Refugees of a World on Fire:” Women of Color Feminism and Queer of Color Critique
In the foreword to the current edition to the seminal volume This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, co-editor and author Cherríe Moraga reflects on the 35 years that have passed since the volume was first issued in 1981, concluding that for women and queer people of color, the world is as much on fire now, as it used to be then. And indeed, looking at the past few years, which have been shaped by a global pandemic, a strong increase in right-wing mobilization, state-sanctioned violence against racialized others, the many cases of sexual abuse brought to light by the #MeToo movement, a surge in cases of queer- and transphobic violence, the recent rollback on women*’s reproductive rights through the overruling of Rowe vs. Wade, the war in Ukraine and the global cut-backs of natural resources, Moraga’s observation seems like a fair assessment. She reminds us that within the 35 years since Bridge’s publication the intersecting forces of capitalism, imperialism, racism, sexism, ableism, queer- and transphobia may have proliferated and modified, tactics may have changed as have the stakes of inclusion and exclusion. Yet, the way in which Bridge has been received, copied, used and reused to the extent that people refer to it as the “bible” of women of color feminism, reminds us that its contents and theoretical contributions may resonate with current generations of thinkers and activists, as much as they have with the writers included in the original 1981 edition.
In this seminar we will approach the study of American culture from the vantage point of Women Color Feminism and Queer of Color critique. By engaging with the genealogy of these theoretical formations, seminar participants will be concerned with current political and cultural issues such as inclusion vs. exclusion, margin vs. center, intersectionality, empowerment, interracial alliance-building and allyship, anti-imperialist modes of resistance, and political self-positioning. We will explore how such issues influence and shape our understanding of American cultural studies. By reading seminar texts from both these bodies of theories combined with a variety of cultural artefacts from different genres, this seminar aims at conveying insights into the social, cultural, and epistemological complexities of American culture, starting off with general questions, such as, “What is American Studies?” and “How do we approach the study of culture?” |
