Introduction: A Dialogue

In this introduction to the special issue of American Quarterly, “Species/Race/Sex,” Claire Jean Kim and Carla Freccero hold a conversation based on a set of questions about the fields they work in and the interdisciplinary and political challenges to thinking intersectionally about species, race, and sex. They discuss their field formations; the need for interdisciplinary approaches to address the full complexity of categories of identity, being, and belonging; and the challenges and resistances that arise when working across these divides. They also talk about what motivates them to do this work, what work they hope to see in the future, and the diversity and range of the essays included in the volume, which they introduce by briefly describing each. The collection begins with a work of fiction and is divided into sections: “History and Empire,” “Intersections,” and “Becoming,” followed by “Afterword: Moving Ahead.”