Decolonial Thinking delves into the intricate web of colonial practices, terms, and ideas that have woven themselves into people's lives. It seeks to understand how the tendrils of coloniality have insidiously attached themselves to the very fabric of self-understanding. From the mundane to the profound, this exploration sheds light on our relationship with all that constitutes life. Editors Maria Lugones and Patrick M. Crowley have meticulously curated 11 unique articles by interdisciplinary theorists. These thought-provoking pieces compellingly address questions surrounding colonial legacies. Organized into five sections, the book navigates themes ranging from sexualities and multiple worlds to differential topographies. It also examines the relation between women-of-color politics and decoloniality, exploring resistance, coalition building, and pluriversality. As decolonial theory gains global recognition, it has emerged as a critical lens through which we view capitalism, racism, gender discrimination, violence, and Eurocentrism. Decolonial Thinking boldly rejects oppressive rationalities, prompting fresh strategies for shared meanings. These strategies diverge radically from dominant disciplinary and academic categories of knowledge, inviting us to reimagine our understanding of the world.
Maria Lugones (1944-2020) was a leading decolonial feminist philosopher, a popular educator at the Escuela Popular Nortena, and Professor of Comparative Literature at Binghamton University. She coedited (with Yuderkys Espinosa-Minoso and Nelson Maldonado-Torres) Decolonial Feminism in Abya Yala: Caribbean, Meso, and South American Contributions and Challenges and authored dozens of philosophical essays, some of which are collected in Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions and The Maria Lugones Reader. Patrick M. Crowley is a Lecturer in English at Appalachian State University. His research examines decolonial aesthetics in the work of Caribbean and Afro-diasporic artists-theorists-practitioners.
Acknowledgments and Dedication Introduction, by Maria Lugones and Patrick M. Crowley Part I: Making Other-Sense of Sex and Gender 1. A Decolonial Revisiting of Gender, by Maria Lugones 2. Sexual Identity, Coloniality, and the Practice of Coming Out: A Conversation, by Michael Hames-Garcia and Maria Lugones 3. Monstrous Becomings: Concepts for Building Decolonial Queer Coalitions, by Hil Malatino Part II: Between Women of Color Politics and Decoloniality 4. Bridging Empires, Transgressing Disciplines: Methodological Interventions in Asian America, by Jen-Feng Kuo and Shireen Roshanravan 5. Towards the Decolonial: Dehumanization, US Women of Color Thought, and the Non-violent Politics of Love, by Laura Perez Part III: Methods and Maps toward Resistant Meanings 6. Feminist Advocacy Research, Relationality, and the Coloniality of Knowledge, by Sarah Lucia Hoagland 7. Topographies of Flesh: Women, Non-human Animals, and the Embodiment of Connection and Difference, by Jennifer McWeeny 8. Decolonial Aesthetics Beyond the Borders of Man: Sylvia Wynter's Theory and Praxis of Human-Aesthetic Transformation, by Patrick M. Crowley Part IV: Radical Coalitions and Communal Politics 9. Hanging Out and an Infrapolitics of Youth, by Cindy Cruz 10. On a Non-dialogic Theory of Decolonial Communication, by Gabriela Veronelli 11. From Nation to Plurination: Plurinationalism, Decolonial Feminism, and the Politics of Coalitional Praxis in Ecuador, by Christine 'Cricket' Keating and Amy Lind
"This book thinks/feels/moves us toward the social physics of peace. Liberation philosopher Audre Lorde tells us how she and her allies inadvertently find themselves within "the very house of difference." Each chapter in this book offers readers more and other doorways for entry. Prepare to experience other-wise perceptions and communal possibilities that do not lead to war. Learn to think/feel/move/act/become outside the living psychic and social colonialities of power. Dare to experience the social physics of love. As ally Third World feminist Maria Lugones says, beyond the universe shimmers pluriversality." - Chela Sandoval, UC Santa Barbara
