Politics of Intimacy: Race, Family and the Neoliberal State

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The panel addresses new and overlooked intersections of politics, history, culture and identity in the construction of family, intimate relations and the state. Using inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches from the fields of law, social movements, public policy, political theory and history, the papers explore various family-related themes such as domesticity, affection, masculinity, dependency, and kinship, analyzing their shifting and intersecting dynamics across multiple eras in American Political development. The panel examines these issues through the lens of race, gender, sexuality and class. In so doing the panel hopes to highlight the intersecting political and market nature of intimacy and family.

Sub Unit

• Division 7: Politics and History

Individual Presentations

• Naturalizing Affection: Family, Slavery, and the State in the Antebellum South - Gwendoline M. Alphonso, Fairfield University

• The Neoliberal Family: Feminism, Race and the Right in the 1980s - Priscilla Yamin, University of Oregon

• The Soul of America: Nostalgia and Demonology in Pat Buchanan’s Political Appeal - Lisa Beard, Western Washington University

• What's Right(-Wing) with White Women? The Development of Conservative Ideology - Chelsea Ebin, Centre College

Chair

• Eva Bertram University of California, Santa Cruz

Discussants

• Heath Brown City University of New York, Graduate Center and John Jay College

• James A. Morone Brown University