PANEL 4 / BEYOND IDENTITY FROM WITHIN: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON IDENTITY
CONVENOR INES ZAMPAGLIONE
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected].
In recent years, attacks on so-called “wokeism” and “gender ideology” have become commonplace. Across the globe, authoritarian and far-right leaders have coalesced around these spurious labels, transforming them into instruments of moral panic that legitimize exclusionary and discriminatory agendas (Butler). Yet from progressive and emancipatory perspectives, confronting questions of identity remains essential, whether as
a step toward a more egalitarian society or as part of imagining a radically new one. Far-right and conservative opposition makes this engagement more urgent than ever.
Philosophical traditions within feminist, queer, and postcolonial thought – often grouped under the broad heading of “identity politics” – have long challenged the universalism embedded in liberal and economicistic frameworks. They argue that social positioning is shaped not only by material and class relations but also by intersecting axes of gender, race, sexuality, and ability. Consequently, any reasoning about equality and emancipation must begin from marginalized and minority standpoints as sources of normative insight and political orientation. Theories of recognition have sought to formalize this commitment, framing recognition as a fundamental condition of justice (Taylor,Honneth).
At the same time, critical voices within these traditions have exposed the limitations and risks of grounding political struggle primarily in identity. Some have shown how thepoliticization of identity has, in practice, converged with neoliberal individualism, neutralizing social conflict (Fraser, Ahmed). Others have warned that an overemphasis on identity can hinder solidarity by fragmenting collective struggles into self-enclosed “identity groups,” fostering a form of social atomization (McNally). Marxist and materialist critics have further insisted that identity must be understood in relation to the dynamics of capitalist exploitation and class formation (Bhattacharya, Chibber, Wood). Finally—and crucially—Butler and others have pointed to a deeper paradox: that identity-based politics can end up reifying the very categories it seeks to liberate, reproducing the norms and exclusions it aims to dismantle.
This panel invites engagement with critical perspectives on identity politics that nonetheless share its emancipatory horizon—one that envisions human emancipation and equality, regardless of anyone’s social position.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Submissions from scholars belonging to underrepresented groups in academia, as well as those engaging with non-Western perspectives, are particularly encouraged.
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected].
In recent years, attacks on so-called “wokeism” and “gender ideology” have become commonplace. Across the globe, authoritarian and far-right leaders have coalesced around these spurious labels, transforming them into instruments of moral panic that legitimize exclusionary and discriminatory agendas (Butler). Yet from progressive and emancipatory perspectives, confronting questions of identity remains essential, whether as
a step toward a more egalitarian society or as part of imagining a radically new one. Far-right and conservative opposition makes this engagement more urgent than ever.
Philosophical traditions within feminist, queer, and postcolonial thought – often grouped under the broad heading of “identity politics” – have long challenged the universalism embedded in liberal and economicistic frameworks. They argue that social positioning is shaped not only by material and class relations but also by intersecting axes of gender, race, sexuality, and ability. Consequently, any reasoning about equality and emancipation must begin from marginalized and minority standpoints as sources of normative insight and political orientation. Theories of recognition have sought to formalize this commitment, framing recognition as a fundamental condition of justice (Taylor,Honneth).
At the same time, critical voices within these traditions have exposed the limitations and risks of grounding political struggle primarily in identity. Some have shown how thepoliticization of identity has, in practice, converged with neoliberal individualism, neutralizing social conflict (Fraser, Ahmed). Others have warned that an overemphasis on identity can hinder solidarity by fragmenting collective struggles into self-enclosed “identity groups,” fostering a form of social atomization (McNally). Marxist and materialist critics have further insisted that identity must be understood in relation to the dynamics of capitalist exploitation and class formation (Bhattacharya, Chibber, Wood). Finally—and crucially—Butler and others have pointed to a deeper paradox: that identity-based politics can end up reifying the very categories it seeks to liberate, reproducing the norms and exclusions it aims to dismantle.
This panel invites engagement with critical perspectives on identity politics that nonetheless share its emancipatory horizon—one that envisions human emancipation and equality, regardless of anyone’s social position.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Marxist and Marxist feminist readings of identity politics
- Critiques of identity formation and the commodification of difference
- Queer and trans critical approaches to (gender) identity
- Redistribution, recognition, and the cultural turn
- Poststructuralist, ecofeminist and posthuman approaches to identity and materiality
- Critical approaches to identity from distributive justice perspectives
- Crip critical approaches to identity and embodiment
- Decolonial and postcolonial perspectives on race, capitalism and coloniality
Submissions from scholars belonging to underrepresented groups in academia, as well as those engaging with non-Western perspectives, are particularly encouraged.
