Decolonizing Feminism in the #MeToo Era

in The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
Author:
Ritty Lukose New York University Ral13@nyu.edu

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/cja.2018.360205
Keywords:
decolonize; feminism; generations; India; #MeToo; politics of location; postcolonial; race
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Abstract

This article explores what it means to decolonize feminism in the university today. Pushing against the idea that feminism in the university is disengaged from broader struggles, the article suggests a complex relationship between feminism as a knowledge project and as a political one. While feminism has had a long-standing decolonizing imperative within the university, equally challenging has been the decolonization of feminism. The #MeToo era has foregrounded the universalizing horizon of feminism, posing new challenges for this project. Arguing for a more complex understanding of generations and the politics of location in these debates, the article draws on a recent and not so recent feminist archive, such as the articulation of ideas of intersectionality and the ways in which multiple feminisms have been understood, in order to explore decolonizing feminism today.

Contributor Notes

Ritty Lukose is Associate Professor in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. Her areas of interest include Anthropology, Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and South Asian Studies. She is the author of Liberalization’s Children: Gender, Youth and Consumer Citizenship in Globalizing India (Duke University Press, 2009) and co-editor of South Asian Feminisms (Duke University Press, 2012).

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Cover The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
19
Keywords:
decolonize; feminism; generations; India; #MeToo; politics of location; postcolonial; race
Print Publication Date:
01 Sep 2018
Online Publication Date:
01 Sep 2018
Copyright:
© The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology 2018

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