Dependency Theory and Intersectionality

This workshop offers the opportunity to explore theoretical approaches to intersectionality and their applications in slavery and dependency studies. Guided by four renowned experts in the fields of anthropology (Laurie A. Wilkie, UK Berkeley), theology (Kari L. Day, Princeton), sociology (Zine Magubane, Boston College), and history (Karen Graubart, University of Notre Dame), we will examine how slavery and dependency studies might benefit from a greater emphasis on intersectionality, and how intersectionality theory might profit from research on asymmetrical dependencies. How might the comparative approach employed by researchers at the BCDSS complement classic legal and sociological conceptions of intersectionality that follow along the lines of race, gender, and class? How might both theoretical frameworks be strengthened by a greater emphasis on questions of sexuality, gender identity beyond the binary, (dis)ability, or religious experience in modern and pre-modern societies?