Crista Lebens

Any theory incorporating 'identity' as a central concept must respond to the criticisms of identity posed by postmodernists. For feminist theorists, the most complete articulation of such criticisms has been developed by Judith Butler. Butler focuses on gender identity at the level of subjectivity, how the individual is constructed as a gendered being. The conception of subjectivity Butler criticizes is one that legitimates the social order by masking the power dynamics involved in the construction of subjects. ;In this dissertation, I argue that the construction of subjectivity developed by Maria Lugones engages the criticisms of identity raised by Judith Butler. Furthermore, mestiza, or multiplicitous subjectivity, on Lugones' account, can be the basis for political action. To illustrate this, I analyze the construction of gender identity and racial identity. Finally, I show that mestiza subjectivity as a ground for politics, provides a means for constructing a sustained coalitional identity politics

A pattern of attacks against instructors of color, often untenured and female, has emerged in recent years. A democratic society depends, for healthy functioning, on an educated citizenry. The attacks on education, especially on race and ethnic studies programs, are a part of a systemic movement to suppress radical thought within the university. I argue that this pattern of repression is a form of white ignorance and fits into Charles Mills’s analysis of the epistemology of ignorance. Moreover, this ignorance of systemic racism on the part of white people is as James Baldwin called it, ‘sacred and sacredly cultivated.’ To counter this pattern of repression, those of us with a measure of protection under the principles of academic freedom must be attentive to the ways in which efforts to address racial injustice in the university, such as work on diversity committees, can be turned to support institutional goals that conflict with the goal of racial and other forms of social justice.