- Milwaukee, WI
Stephanie Rivera Berruz
Marquette University, Philosophy, Faculty Member
- Philosophy, Critical Race Theory, Black Studies Or African American Studies, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Latin American Philosophy, Caribbean Philosophy, and 14 moreChicana Feminist Theory, Women's Studies, Black/African Diaspora, Critical Race Studies, Derrick Bell, Humanities, Postcolonial Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Postcolonial Theory, Gender Studies, Mexican philosophy, Anti-Colonialism, Black Masculinity, and Hispanic Philosophyedit
This essay comparatively reads the intellectual contributions of Luisa Capetillo and Ofelia Rodríguez Acosta. I argue that Capetillo and Rodríguez Acosta offer unique and under-appreciated perspectives on what I term the assemblages of... more
This essay comparatively reads the intellectual contributions of Luisa Capetillo and Ofelia Rodríguez Acosta. I argue that Capetillo and Rodríguez Acosta offer unique and under-appreciated perspectives on what I term the assemblages of belonging that resist the regulatory normalization of sexuality and the reduction of the maternal body as the source of home and place making in the context of Puerto Rico and Cuba respectively. As the paper demonstrates, what it means to belong, in the context of Antillean women writers, is not entirely tied to a particular place or the identity of people. Rather, belonging is assembled through tactics that are always already decentered given the status of womanhood and its interpellations in the Caribbean at the turn of the 20th century, which was performatively accomplished through the acts of writing and reading. I argue that Capetillo and Rodríguez Acosta assemble notions of belonging through performative mechanisms that place them at the cross-r...
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This essay explores the philosophical productions of women from the Spanish speaking Caribbean. Here the Caribbean is understood as a multiplicitous and polyphonic space that exists amidst modernities engendered by colonization. I present... more
This essay explores the philosophical productions of women from the Spanish speaking Caribbean. Here the Caribbean is understood as a multiplicitous and polyphonic space that exists amidst modernities engendered by colonization. I present the intellectual contributions of Luisa Capetillo, Ofelia Rodríguez Acosta, Petronila Angélica Gómez, Ochy Curiel, Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, and Yomaira Figueroa as fertile philosophical starting points from which to frame a feminist tradition of the Spanish‐speaking Caribbean that appreciates the multiple and often conflicting body of ideas that emerge from within a sea of islands.
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Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex has been heralded as a canonical text of feminist theory. The book focuses on providing an account of the lived experience of woman that generates a condition of otherness. However, I contend that... more
Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex has been heralded as a canonical text of feminist theory. The book focuses on providing an account of the lived experience of woman that generates a condition of otherness. However, I contend that it falls short of being able to account for the multidimensionality of identity insofar as Beauvoir's argument rests upon the comparison between racial and gendered oppression that is understood through the black–white binary. The result of this framework is the imperceptibility of identities at the crossroads between categories of race and gender. Hence, the goal of this article is to explore the margins of Beauvoir's work in order to decenter the “other” of The Second Sex and make known what is made imperceptible by its architecture, using Latina identity as an interventional guide. I conclude that given the prominence of The Second Sex in feminist theory, this shortcoming must be addressed if feminist theorists are to use it responsibly.
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Latin American philosophy has long been concerned with its philosophical identity. In this paper I argue that the search for Latin American philosophical identity is motivated by a desire for recognition that largely hinges on its... more
Latin American philosophy has long been concerned with its philosophical identity. In this paper I argue that the search for Latin American philosophical identity is motivated by a desire for recognition that largely hinges on its relationship to European thought. Given that motivations are seldom easily accessible, the essay comparatively draws on Africana and Native American metaphilosophical reflections. Such juxtapositions serve as a means of establishing how philosophical exclusions have themselves motivated and structured how Latin American philosophy has understood its own quest for philosophical identity. In closing, I gesture toward the possibilities of shifting the conversation away from what makes Latin American philosophy distinct toward one of praxis-what do we want Latin American philosophy to do.
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Luisa Capetillo (1829-1922) has been heralded as the first feminist writer of Puerto Rico. She authored four books and embodied her emancipatory philosophical commitments, but has received scant philosophical attention. In this paper I... more
Luisa Capetillo (1829-1922) has been heralded as the first feminist writer of Puerto Rico. She authored four books and embodied her emancipatory philosophical commitments, but has received scant philosophical
attention. In this paper I recover the philosophy of Capetillo as part of a Latin American and Caribbean philosophical tradition centered on radical praxis places sexuality at the centerfold of class politics. At the intersection between gender equity and class emancipation Capetillo advocated for the liberatory possibilities of education, which served as the key to unlearning the social norms that engendered the marginalization of working people and working women.
attention. In this paper I recover the philosophy of Capetillo as part of a Latin American and Caribbean philosophical tradition centered on radical praxis places sexuality at the centerfold of class politics. At the intersection between gender equity and class emancipation Capetillo advocated for the liberatory possibilities of education, which served as the key to unlearning the social norms that engendered the marginalization of working people and working women.
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Comparative philosophy is an important site for the study of non-Western philosophical traditions, but it has long been associated with “East-West” dialogue. Comparative Studies in Asian and Latin American Philosophies shifts this... more
Comparative philosophy is an important site for the study of non-Western philosophical traditions, but it has long been associated with “East-West” dialogue. Comparative Studies in Asian and Latin American Philosophies shifts this trajectory to focus on cross-cultural conversations across Asia and Latin America. A team of international contributors discuss subjects ranging from Orientalism in early Latin American studies of Asian thought to liberatory politics in today's globalized world. They bring together resources including Latin American feminism, Aztec teachings on ethics, Buddhist critiques of essentialism, and Confucian morality. Chapters address topics such as educational reform, the social practices surrounding breastfeeding, martial arts as political resistance, and the construction of race and identity. Together the essays reflect the philosophical diversity of Asia and Latin America while foregrounding their shared concerns on issues of Eurocentrism and coloniality. By bringing these critical perspectives to bear on the theories and methods of cross-cultural philosophy, Comparative Studies in Asian and Latin American Philosophies offers new insights into the nature and practice of philosophical comparison.
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To gather is a political act. Whether a gathering is capable of eliciting the participation of those present is a sign of the underlying vision organizing a collectivity. The marginalization of persons and modes of thought within... more
To gather is a political act. Whether a gathering is capable of eliciting the participation of those present is a sign of the underlying vision organizing a collectivity. The marginalization of persons and modes of thought within gatherings that stand in for the field of philosophy in the United States speaks to the politics of these acts. Their underlying vision delimits the fate of alterity in our discipline: the silencing of persons whose lives may necessitate or invite thinking ignored realities, inhabiting unrecognized traditions, and/or working with alternative methodologies, conceptual tools, and symbolic forms. The Roundtable on Latina Feminism, however, presents us with the potential for a robust vision. It critically fosters affective relations capable of withstanding the challenges of alterity and oriented toward building a collective vision for philosophical thinking. In philosophy (φιkοrοφίa), an essentially collective form of labor, the political is immanent to its unique critical and creative power. Western academic philosophy, however, confronts a particularly insidious obstacle to the collectivity it presumes: its practitioners' difficulty in grasping the fact that there is no shared vision making sense of its disciplinary unity. Despite the growing literature and clarity of voices helping us comprehend the historical and material conditions that contribute to the cognitive-epistemological difficulties in noticing the lack of a philosophical vision, there is little political and ethical force to these epistemic resources. Instead, we gather within the same university and classroom walls; under the same descriptive institutional categories and units; bounded by selective journals and presses; and together in national and regional conference centers and Internet sites. In other words, we habitually codify our functions and partake in normalized practices that serve to perpetuate the idea of a project that succeeds at accomplishing its epistemic goals. As practitioners in the field of philosophy we imagine ourselves " philosophers. " The reproduction of failed rituals in endeavors that sustain a mythical identity and cultural ties highlights the degree of social alienation within the discipline.