Intersectionality in the Canadian Courts: In Search of a Decolonial Politics of Possibility

Authors

  • Caroline Alexandra Hodes University of Lethbridge

Keywords:

Anti-Discrimination Law, Gender Representations

Abstract

This critical examination of intersectionality in the context of Canadian anti- discrimination cases outlines the Lockean foundations of identity construction in the courts. By framing Jasbir Puar’s articulation of intersectionality as an invitation to create more complex cartographies, the author challenges the hegemony of certain kinds of knowledge production in sites of institutional power. Résumé Cet examen critique de l’intersectionnalité dans le contexte des affaires de lutte contre la discrimination au Canada souligne les fondements lockiens de la construction de l’identité devant les tribunaux. En formulant l’articulation de l’intersectionnalité par Jasbir Puar comme une invitation à créer des cartographies plus complexes, l’auteure conteste l’hégémonie de certains types de production des connaissances dans les lieux de pouvoir institutionnel.

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Author Biography

Caroline Alexandra Hodes, University of Lethbridge

Caroline Hodes is Assistant Professor at the University of Lethbridge in the Department of Women & Gender Studies.  She completed her PhD in the department of Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University in 2013.  Her dissertation is entitled: (Re) Producing Nation at the Supreme Court of Canada: Identity, Memory, History and Equality in R. v. Kapp. The Helena Orton Memorial fund and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded her doctoral research. Her work can be read in the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Canadian Woman Studies, Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice and in Feminist (Im)Mobilities in Fortress(ing) North America: Rights, Citizenships and Identities in Transnational Perspective, a collection in Ashgate’s  Gender in a Global/Local World series.

 

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Published

2017-06-09

Issue

Vol. 38 No. 1 (2017): What’s Intersectional about Intersectionality Now? & Intersectionality in Austere Times: Boundary Crossing Conversations

Section

38.1- What’s Intersectional about Intersectionality Now?

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