I Change Myself, I Change the World”

Gloria Anzaldúa's Sociological Imagination in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

Bibliographic Data

ID11230876
AuthorsMohammad H Tamdgidi (University of Massachusetts Boston, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume32
Issue4
Pages311-335
Publication date2008-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHumanity & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0160-5976 • E-ISSN: 2372-9708
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/016059760803200402
OpenAlexW2073058401
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

What lessons can sociologists draw from Chicana cultural theorist and spiritual activist Gloria E. Anzaldúa to advance the sociological imagination and intellectual agenda that make a public difference? In this paper I argue the key to Anzaldúa's public impact has to be sought in her thesis of the simultaneity of self and global transformations, and the intricate strategies she used to advance the thesis through her writings such as Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987). Closely reading the text, I note how the transformation of self/world for Anzaldúa's essentially involves the task of bridging/transcending/healing a vast array of habitual dualisms deeply ingrained in our personal and global landscapes. Progressively unpacking Anzaldúa's sociological imagination to highlight its potential contributions to enriching the Millsian and symbolic interactionist traditions in sociology, I provide a plausible answer to the question of what is so publicly transformative and energizing in Anzaldúa's often privately focused, reflexive writings. I argue that it is the dialectic of public and private sociology informing her sociological imagination that renders her intellectual work so effective. Amid current debates on ways to advance public sociology, Anzaldúa's way of going private to advance public sociology is paradoxically effective and refreshing

Aesthetics · Dialectic · Epistemology · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociological imagination · Sociology · Transformative learning · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Capital and Networks

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