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Interstitiality: Making Space for Migration, Diaspora, and Racial Complexity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Falguni A. Sheth
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Abstract

In this essay, I consider how to conceptualize “diasporic” subjects, namely those whose identities and homes cannot be easily attributed, with regard to the political and racial dynamics of intra‐group tensions, alliances, and divergences of interest. These concerns are important relatives to topics that Critical Race Theorists and Critical Race Feminists have readily addressed, such as the war on terror, the not‐so‐gradual erosion of dignity and rights protections accorded to non‐citizens, and the increasing antagonism, surveillance, and brutality toward Latino and Muslim migrants. As such, the former issues should become central concerns for Critical Race Theorists. In what follows, I want to introduce a framework called “interstitiality” as a way to address them.1

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Hypatia , Volume 29 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Interstices: Inheriting Women of Color Feminist Philosophy , Winter 2014 , pp. 75 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by Hypatia, Inc.

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Footnotes

A previous version of this paper was presented on a panel on “African American Philosophy and Critical Race Theory” at the Central American Philosophical Association meeting in March 2011. I would like to thank the audience there, three anonymous referees, Mickaella Perina, Robert E. Prasch, and Kristie Dotson for the useful suggestions and feedback on this paper.

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