Intersecting Identities and Social Justice: Realist Explorations

Seminar Leaders:  Linda Martin Alcoff, Philosophy and Women's Studies Syracuse University and Satya P. Mohanty, English, Cornell University.

Seminar Description: Can social identities be studies "objectively"? What are the philosophical and political differences among realist, essentialist, strategic-essentialist, and postmodernist approaches to identity? Why is a realist theoretical approach important for or relevant to the quest for social justice?

This interdisciplinary seminar will address such questions and focus centrally on the ways our social identities "intersect," overlapping and often mutually constituting one another. Readings from a range of fields in the humanities and the social sciences, including such thinkers as Richard Boyd, Kimberle Crenshaw, W.E.B. Du Bois, Leslie Feinberg, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Robert Gooding-Williams, Ian Hacking, Daniel Little, Tobin Siebers, and Iris Young.

The seminar will incorporate three workshops taught by: Richard Boyd (Philosophy, Cornell University), William Darity Jr., (Economics; Sociology; Institute for African American Research; UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University), Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (Women's Studies, Emory University), and Tobin Siebers (Comparative Literature, University of Michigan).

Eligibility: Doctoral students who have completed at least two years of their Ph.D. work and junior faculty in temporary or tenure-track positions who are working on minority issues. Minority scholars and those who are at HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions are especially encouraged to apply. For the twelve scholars selected to participate in the summer institute, subsidy will be available to cover room, board, and (if needed) travel costs. FMS does not charge tuition or fees.  Application deadline: January 30, 2007.  

For more information visit www.fmsproject.cornell.edu or email

 
***The FMS Summer Institute is funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation***