Third World Studies: Theorizing Liberation

In 1968 the Third World Liberation Front at San Francisco State College demanded the creation of a Third World studies program to counter the existing curricula that ignored issues of power--notably, imperialism and oppression. The administration responded by institutionalizing an ethnic studies program; Third World studies was over before it began. Detailing the field's genesis and premature death, Gary Y. Okihiro presents an intellectual history of ethnic studies and Third World studies and shows where they converged and departed by identifying some of their core ideas, concepts, methods, and theories. In so doing, he establishes the contours of a unified field of study--Third World studies--that pursues a decolonial politics by examining the human condition broadly, especially in regard to oppression, and critically analyzing the locations and articulations of power as manifested in the social formation. Okihiro's framing of Third World studies moves away from ethnic studies' liberalism and its U.S.-centrism to emphasize the need for complex thinking and political action in the drive for self-determination.

Author: Gary Y. Okihiro
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 09/02/2016
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.20w x 0.20d
ISBN13: 9780822362319
ISBN10: 0822362317
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Developing & Emerging Countries
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | General
- Political Science | Colonialism & Post-Colonialism

About the Author
Gary Y. Okihiro is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the author of several books, most recently, American History Unbound: Asians and Pacific Islanders.