From the Spatiality of Oppression and Resistance to the Decoloniality of Space
Open Access
- Author:
- Ramos, Cynthia
- Graduate Program:
- Philosophy
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 06, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Nancy Tuana, Co-Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Melissa Wright, Outside Unit & Field Member
Robert Bernasconi, Co-Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Kathryn Belle, Major Field Member
Leonard Lawlor, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Lugones
oppression
resistance
feminist philosophy
decolonial philosophy
space
spatiality
ontological pluralism
decoloniality - Abstract:
- This dissertation project stems from one central observation: María Lugones’s Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions (2003) is rife with spatial concepts and metaphors, but the significance of and connections between these concepts are not immediately evident—and what she means by “space” in general is not either. While Lugones’s work has recently garnered more attention across a variety of academic circles and disciplines, her engagement with the notion of space itself remains profoundly under-examined and underappreciated. My dissertation intends to fill this gap and contribute meaningfully to the growing field of Lugonesian scholarship by developing a close reading of Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes that focuses on her engagement with space. The aim of this dissertation is two-fold. First, to delineate the ways in which Lugones engages with space throughout Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes and articulate what I refer to as her method of spatial theorizing. Second, to utilize my understanding of Lugones’s spatial theorizing as a lens for developing an original, close reading of Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes that traces critical connections between her ontologically plural accounts of subjects and realities and her complex understanding of oppression and resistance.