In his critique of Identity Politics Samir Gandesha suggests that rather than identity politics is based on a particular account of experience as expressed in the statement “You wouldn’t understand because it’s a black, Asian or queer thing.” It is a staking out of a proprietary relation to an experience understood not as a process and a social relation but as a thing. According to Gandesha, this leads to a moralistic discourse based on the claiming of special victim status based on such reified experience. The collective nature of identity politics can be seen in various sorts of redress and apology movements in Canada. In contrast to the structuralist premises of the influential model of Asad Haider, which emphasizes the concept of interpellation, a dialectical conception of experience from Hegel through Marx to Fanon can show the way in which experience can be understood in a dynamic way. Thus, we can look beyond the typical ontological pitfalls and normative aporias of identity politics.

Time: Tuesday, January 22nd, 6pm
Location: Room 112