Subtopic Deep Dive
Feminism and Settler Colonialism
Research Guide
What is Feminism and Settler Colonialism?
"Feminism and Settler Colonialism" examines feminist complicity in colonial violence through decolonial critiques that decenter Western gender frameworks and prioritize Indigenous and migrant experiences.
This subtopic traces decolonial feminisms via Latin American/Latinx philosophy, as in Velez and Tuana (2020) with 15 citations. It critiques imperialism in gender discourses, linking disability, queerness, and race in memoirs (Hamidi and Moyer, 2020, 2 citations). Over 10 recent papers (2015+) address these intersections, including social reproduction theory (Dibavar, 2022, 2 citations).
Why It Matters
Decolonial feminisms expose how mainstream feminism reinforces settler colonialism, guiding praxis against gendered colonial violence; Velez and Tuana (2020) trace lineages to challenge Eurocentric gender norms. In Mexico, feminist collaborations combat feminicide amid drug wars (Figueroa Romero, 2023). Dibavar (2022) argues for reclaiming gender categories from commodification, impacting activist research on Indigenous migrant marginalization (Shereen et al., 2026).
Key Research Challenges
Decolonizing Feminist Methodologies
Western feminist methods often replicate colonial power structures in knowledge production. Figueroa Romero (2023) highlights challenges in collaborative research against feminicide in Mexico. Spathopoulou and Meier (2023) advocate refusal practices to relate otherwise with borders and activism.
Intersecting Race and Gender
Tracing race-gender intersections requires moving beyond binary frameworks. Velez and Tuana (2020) respond to Lugones's call for decolonial feminisms via tango dancing metaphor (9 citations). Hamidi and Moyer (2020) analyze disability, queerness, and diaspora in Khakpour's memoir.
Navigating Tokenistic Appropriations
Gender and race categories face commodification, stripping radical roots. Dibavar (2022) critiques tokenistic use in social reproduction theory. This hinders transformative praxis amid ongoing colonial legacies.
Essential Papers
Toward Decolonial Feminisms: Tracing the Lineages of Decolonial Thinking through Latin American/Latinx Feminist Philosophy
Emma D. Velez, Nancy Tuana · 2020 · Hypatia · 15 citations
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the 'Save PDF' acti...
Politics in the Time of COVID
Stefanie Fishel, Andrew Fletcher, Sankaran Krishna et al. · 2021 · Contemporary Political Theory · 12 citations
Tango Dancing with María Lugones
Emma D. Velez, Nancy Tuana · 2020 · Critical Philosophy of Race · 9 citations
This special issue is a response to María Lugones's provocative invitation to engage in a methodological move toward decolonial feminisms in the attempt to philosophize about the ways race and gend...
Locating Sickness: Disability, Queerness, and Race in a Memoir
Yalda N. Hamidi, Valerie Moyer · 2020 · Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research · 2 citations
This paper re-reads Sick: A Memoir (2018) by Porochista Khakpour, as a transnational feminist and queer text, to investigate how the author locates her disability and queerness with the diaspora, h...
(Re)Claiming gender: A case for feminist decolonial social reproduction theory
Aytak Dibavar · 2022 · Global Constitutionalism · 2 citations
Abstract This article argues that the tokenistic appropriation of categories such as gender and race have deprived them of their radical and transformative political and practical roots while facil...
Like Snow Like Mountain: Narrating Gender Violence in the Era of #MeToo Activism
Daniela Licandro · 2025 · 1 citations
Practising refusal as relating otherwise: engagements with knowledge production, ‘activist’ praxis, and borders
Aila Spathopoulou, Isabel Meier · 2023 · Fennia · 1 citations
This special issue explores the concept of refusal through academic and personal reflections, conversation, poetry, activism, and performative practice. In this introduction, we first situate pract...
Reading Guide
Foundational Papers
Start with Pennee (2005) for critiques of feminist identity sameness in colonial times, establishing location politics bases echoed in later decolonial works.
Recent Advances
Study Velez and Tuana (2020, 15 citations) for Latinx decolonial lineages and Figueroa Romero (2023) for gender justice collaborations against feminicide.
Core Methods
Core techniques: decolonial tracing (Velez/Tuana 2020), refusal engagements (Spathopoulou/Meier 2023), transnational memoir reading (Hamidi/Moyer 2020).
How PapersFlow Helps You Research Feminism and Settler Colonialism
Discover & Search
Research Agent uses searchPapers and exaSearch to find decolonial feminism papers like Velez and Tuana (2020, 15 citations), then citationGraph reveals connections to Lugones-inspired works, while findSimilarPapers uncovers related Indigenous migrant studies.
Analyze & Verify
Analysis Agent applies readPaperContent to extract critiques from Figueroa Romero (2023) on Mexican feminicide collaborations, verifies claims with CoVe for hallucination checks, and runs PythonAnalysis on citation networks using pandas to quantify decolonial theme prevalence, graded via GRADE for evidence strength.
Synthesize & Write
Synthesis Agent detects gaps in settler colonial critiques across Velez/Tuana papers, flags contradictions in gender reclamation (Dibavar, 2022), and Writing Agent uses latexEditText, latexSyncCitations, and latexCompile to produce decolonial praxis manuscripts with exportMermaid for intersectionality diagrams.
Use Cases
"Analyze citation patterns in decolonial feminism papers using Python."
Research Agent → searchPapers('decolonial feminism') → Analysis Agent → runPythonAnalysis(pandas on citation data from Velez/Tuana 2020) → matplotlib visualization of influence networks.
"Draft a LaTeX review on Indigenous women migration and colonialism."
Synthesis Agent → gap detection (Shereen et al. 2026) → Writing Agent → latexEditText(draft section) → latexSyncCitations(Velez/Tuana) → latexCompile → PDF output.
"Find code for analyzing gender violence narratives in settler contexts."
Research Agent → paperExtractUrls(Licandro 2025) → paperFindGithubRepo → githubRepoInspect → Code Discovery workflow outputs scripts for #MeToo narrative analysis.
Automated Workflows
Deep Research workflow conducts systematic reviews of 50+ intersectionality papers, chaining searchPapers → citationGraph → structured decolonial praxis report. DeepScan applies 7-step analysis with CoVe checkpoints to verify Lugones lineage claims in Velez/Tuana (2020). Theorizer generates theories on refusal practices from Spathopoulou/Meier (2023) via literature synthesis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What defines Feminism and Settler Colonialism?
It critiques feminist involvement in colonial violence using decolonial lenses, centering Indigenous and migrant genders, as traced in Velez and Tuana (2020).
What are key methods?
Methods include refusal practices (Spathopoulou and Meier, 2023), collaborative decolonial research (Figueroa Romero, 2023), and memoir analysis for intersections (Hamidi and Moyer, 2020).
What are major papers?
Velez and Tuana (2020, 15 citations) on decolonial lineages; Dibavar (2022, 2 citations) on social reproduction; foundational Pennee (2005) on non-sameness in feminist times.
What open problems exist?
Challenges include commodified gender categories (Dibavar, 2022) and integrating migrant Indigenous experiences amid violence (Shereen et al., 2026).
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