Linda Martín Alcoff's concept of visible identities in the face of the invisibility and racialization regimes

• Grant number: 22/04958-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: August 28, 2022
• End date: August 27, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Maria das Graças de Souza
• Grantee: Maria Fernanda dos Santos
• Supervisor: Linda Martin Alcoff
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: City University of New York (CUNY), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/13022-6 - Transindividuation and self-determination: bringing together the problem of race and the limits of the individual within contemporary thought, BP.PD

Abstract

The aim of this project is to examine the speculative field circumscribed within the problem of identity, especially departing from the notion of visible identities established by Linda Martín Alcoff. We propose such investigation be conducted in the context of our post-doctoral research, where the notions of self-determination and transindividual are being developed in connection with the problem of race, which has redefined the contemporary subject based on issues arising from the philosophical, epistemological and social domains. We believe the notion of visible identities is capable of reorienting philosophical investigation on the problem of identity, which pervades modern and contemporary tradition as a whole, as it proposes articulating identity to the subjects socially marked by it, exploring the philosophical and political effects of the racial markers. It is about reclaiming the critiques to identity postulated by modern and contemporary traditions presented by Alcoff, in order to rehabilitate identity as a socio-historical construction which is compatible with the notions of autonomy and agency. This is essential to our initial research as identity may be elaborated from a connection of subjects with the raciality that pervades them, that is favorable to an ontological, non-essentialist and socially active position. The aim of this project is to examine the speculative field circumscribed within the problem of identity, especially departing from the notion of visible identities established by Linda Martín Alcoff. We propose such investigation be conducted in the context of our post-doctoral research, where the notions of self-determination and transindividual are being developed in connection with the problem of race, which has redefined the contemporary subject based on issues arising from the philosophical, epistemological and social domains. We believe the notion of visible identities is capable of reorienting philosophical investigation on the problem of identity, which pervades modern and contemporary tradition as a whole, as it proposes articulating identity to the subjects socially marked by it, exploring the philosophical and political effects of the racial markers. It is about reclaiming the critiques to identity postulated by modern and contemporary traditions presented by Alcoff, in order to rehabilitate identity as a socio-historical construction which is compatible with the notions of autonomy and agency. This is essential to our initial research as identity may be elaborated from a connection of subjects with the raciality that pervades them, that is favorable to an ontological, non-essentialist and socially active position. (AU)