Intellectual Traditions

Schools of Thought

Explore 6 intellectual movements and traditions

Black Feminism

Period: 19th century–present

Location: United States (primarily), Global (diaspora)

Key Ideas

Intersectionality Matrix of Domination Controlling Images Black Women's Standpoint

Key Figures

sojourner-truth, ida-b-wells, angela-davis, bell-hooks

Frankfurt School

Period: 1923–present

Location: Frankfurt am Main, Germany (originally); New York during WWII

Key Ideas

Critical Theory Culture Industry Dialectic of Enlightenment Authoritarian Personality

Key Figures

max-horkheimer, theodor-adorno, herbert-marcuse, walter-benjamin

Marxism

Period: 1840s–present

Location: Global (originated in Europe)

Key Ideas

Historical Materialism Class Struggle Surplus Value Alienation

Key Figures

karl-marx, friedrich-engels, rosa-luxemburg, vladimir-lenin

Postcolonial Theory

Period: 1950s–present

Location: Global (formerly colonized regions and diaspora)

Key Ideas

Orientalism Subaltern Hybridity Mimicry

Key Figures

edward-said, frantz-fanon, gayatri-spivak, homi-bhabha

Poststructuralism

Period: 1960s–present

Location: France (originated), Global (spread)

Key Ideas

Deconstruction Différance Power/Knowledge Discourse

Key Figures

michel-foucault, jacques-derrida, gilles-deleuze, julia-kristeva

Queer Theory

Period: 1990s–present

Location: United States (originated), Global (spread)

Key Ideas

Gender Performativity Heteronormativity Sexual Dissidence Queer as Verb

Key Figures

judith-butler, eve-sedgwick, gayle-rubin, michel-foucault