Transnational Feminist Crossings: On Neoliberalism and Radical Critique

Abstract

Abstract:The article is a reflection on the neoliberal knowledge economy, the traffic in antiracist feminist theory, and the way my work has been read (lost or found in translation) and has crossed geopolitical and racial/cultural borders. It comments as well on the development of my intellectual project in relation to my location in the US academy and the intellectual and political communities that have made the work possible. The larger frame I seek to examine using responses to my work in three sites -Sweden, Mexico, and Palestine -is the way feminist, postcolonial, and antiracist theory emerges from a particular geopolitical, intellectual space; the way it enacts crossings; and the way it is trafficked, consumed, and understood in different geographies. Given the global and domestic shifts in social movements and transnational feminist scholarly projects over the past three decades, my major concern pertains to the depoliticization of antiracist feminist/ women-of-color/transnational feminist intellectual projects in neoliberal, national-security-driven geopolitical landscapes.

Gender and postcolonial studies: history of the concept and debate

“…According to Amartya Sen, the importance of gender as a parameter is crucial in socioeconomic analysis and it is complementary to, rather than competitive with, class, ownership, occupation, income, status, and ethnicity variables ( Sen, 1993 , p. 73). The transforming component of the concept seems to be evident, as it does not imply a neutral perspective on sexed reality, but the acknowledgement that the latter is characterised by imbalance ( Mohanty, 2015 ).…”