In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

157 Acknowledgments This book has taken me fourteen years to write, and in many ways it constitutes an extended response to the questions I first went to graduate school seeking to address. Indeed, the first draft of the essay that became chapter 1 of this book began as a graduate seminar paper in 1995 for a class at Cornell University with Satya Mohanty and Richard Boyd. Having now finished it, I must reflect that no book really has a single author—and certainly not a book that has been fourteen years in the writing. Of course, all the errors are my own, but there are many people who helped to keep other, more egregious errors out. There are so many people to acknowledge that I will certainly overlook some. First and foremost, I must acknowledge Ernesto Martínez for his intellectual engagement with the manuscript, his sharp criticisms, his unwavering support, and, above all, his emotional sustenance. I have been blessed to have him as a companion in my life and in my work. This book as it now stands was finished at the University of Oregon but was enabled by my seven years at Binghamton University, during which time I had the good fortune to develop a long and sustaining intellectual companionship with María Lugones. María’s role as interlocutor has played an integral role in my growth as a scholar. A key part of my rewriting of chapter 1 was sparked by a question in 2006 by Kia Caldwell regarding intersectionality and multiplicity, followed by subsequent conversations on the topic with María Lugones. I also had a number of fun and useful interdisciplinary conversations about this chapter with Stephanie Fryberg, particularly regarding the notion of “mutual constitution” and other matters. Chapter 2 benefited from important comments by Ernesto Martínez, Paula Moya, Stacy Alaimo, and Susan Hekman. It began, however, through conversations with Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Satya Mohanty, Carrie Sandahl, and Tobin Siebers as part of a Future of Minority Studies Project 158 · Acknowledgments symposium on “Disability Studies and the Realist Theory of Identity” at Cornell University in 2005. Some of the ideas in it were also presented as part of the “How Do Identities Matter?” workshop at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2006, at the invitation of Claire Decoteau and Roxana Galusca. Much of the chapter was completed while serving as the Barbara and Carlisle Moore Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of English at the University of Oregon; I am grateful to everyone in that department for their generosity, hospitality, and support. My understanding of coloniality in chapters 2 and 3 would not be possible without a number of conversations over the past several years with Manuel Chávez-Jiménez, María Lugones, Ernesto Martínez, Walter Mignolo, Paula Moya, Pedro Di Pietro, Joshua Price, Shireen Roshanravan , José David Saldívar, Ramón Saldívar, Gabriel Soldatenko, and Gabriella Veronelli. A conversation over dinner with Omar Naim was also very useful, and I am further indebted to him for putting me in touch with Rasha Moumneh, whose help and insight were invaluable to me in completing chapter 3. Portions of chapters 3 and 4 were presented and commented on in a variety of venues between 2006 and 2008 and I am grateful to the audiences and organizers who engaged with my work during that time. These have included the Department of English Lecture Series at the University of Albany, State University of New York, at the invitation of Rosemary Hennessy; a Future of Minority Studies Summer Colloquium at Stanford University; a presentation sponsored by the Ethnic Studies Program at the University of Nevada–Reno, at the invitation of Daniel Enrique Pérez; the “Empires in the 21st Century” conference of the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) at the University of Oregon, at the invitation of Sangita Gopal, Lamia Karim, and Sandra Morgen; a presentation at Pitzer College, at the invitation of María Soldatenko; and a keynote presentation for the second annual National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Joto Caucus Conference at the California State University , Los Angeles, at the invitation of the conference organizers, José “Pepe” Manuel Aguilar-Hernández and Emmanuelle “Neza” Leal. Some of my ideas from these chapters were also presented on panels at the 2006 American Studies Association meeting in Oakland, the 2008 “Race, Sex, Power: New Movements in Black and Latina/o Sexualities” conference in Chicago, and the...

Share