“Intersectionality... means that social categories such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, or class cannot be conceptualized in isolation from one another, but must be analyzed in their ‘interrelations’ or ‘intersections.’ Additive perspectives should be transcended by focusing on the simultaneous interplay of social inequalities. This is not only a question of taking multiple social categories into account, but also of analyzing their interactions. ” (Walgenbach 2012) The ...
From their beginnings, both Women’s/Gender Studies and Postcolonial Studies have had critical perspectives on the dominant conceptions of scholarship and its epistemological underpinnings. One aspect is the role of academics in the process of knowledge production , for example their relationship to the object(s) of investigation. “Knowledge from the point of view of the unmarked is truly fantastic, distorted, and irrational.” (Haraway, 1991, p. 587) The insistence on neutrality in ...
If we take a critical perspective on the processes and findings of knowledge production, we necessarily arrive at difficult questions about canon formation. The question of what counts as canonical depends on what is recognized as a discipline’s central knowledge and what is not. What are the criteria and standards of evaluation? Which authors and works are considered canonical and which ones are on the margins of the subject? “The canon is made and is related to power from multiple ...