This provocative book is a must-read for scholars and activists engaged in political critique and projects that are invested in challenging the limits of inclusion lodged within the normative frameworks of U.S. law. Brandzel skillfully documents the violence of anti-intersectional politics, epistemologies, and citizenship practices within cases of hate crime legislation, same-sex marriage, and the tensions between civil rights and indigenous rights to effectively argue that the politics of alliance requires activisms against US citizenship as it is constructed through a process of human devaluing. As an ethical alternative, the author offers a dynamic methodology for engaging in a politics of responsibility and accountability for those committed to queer studies and liberatory coalition building.
J. Keaulani Kauanui, Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity Brandzel's humility and care are refreshing and significant, bringing nuance and reflection at every turn to the application of various critical tools to moments of purported inclusion that reveal vital insights about the shape and operations of US citizenship. Brandzel convincingly argues that citizenship is an exclusionary product, and the efforts at including more types of people in it inevitably reify its exclusive nature and undermine opportunities to practice coalition among populations targeted for exclusion.
Feminist Formations Amy Brandzel reaches broadly across and deeply into queer, feminist, Indigenous and critical race studies to expose the irredeemable violences of U.S. citizenship. By bringing together case studies rarely considered within the same frame, Brandzel enacts the kind of intersectional alliance-building towards which Brandzel urges readers. This book energized me, and I look forward to using Brandzel's ideas as a springboard for building coalitions that reject faith in citizenship and instead create other kinds of affinities and attachments.
Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua, coeditor of A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty Recommended.
Choice Against Citizenship will be regarded as one of the most important books in queer and feminist theory of its generation. Broad in its intellectual scope, Brandzel's deft skill at bridging feminist and queer studies with critical ethnic studies and critical Indigenous studies offers a model for the kind of intersectional analysis required to understand and challenge the violence of normativities. It is a powerful read.
Karma Chavez, author of Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities This thoughtful, energizing, and inspiring work should be commended for scholars and activists alike who are engaged in sociopolitical critique.
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