Based on the ongoing work of the agenda-setting Future of Minority Studies national research project, Identity Politics Reconsidered reconceptualizes the scholarly and political significance of social identity. It focuses on the deployment of 'identity' within ethnic, women's, disability, and gay and lesbian studies in order to stimulate discussion about issues that are simultaneously theoretical and practical, ranging from ethics and epistemology to political theory and pedagogical practice. This collection of powerful essays by both well-known and emerging scholars offers original answers to questions concerning the analytical legitimacy of 'identity' and 'experience', and the relationships among cultural autonomy, moral universalism and progressive politics.

Based on the ongoing work of the agenda-setting Future of Minority Studies national research project, "Identity Politics Reconsidered" reconceptualizes the scholarly and political significance of social identity. It focuses on the deployment of "identity" within ethnic-, women's-, disability-, and gay and lesbian studies in order to stimulate discussion about issues that are simultaneously theoretical and practical, ranging from ethics and epistemology to political theory and pedagogical practice. This collection of powerful essays by both well-known and emerging scholars offers original answers to questions concerning the analytical legitimacy of "identity" and "experience," and the relationships among cultural autonomy, moral universalism, and progressive politics.

In seemingly exhaustive arguments about identity as a category of analysis, we have made a critical error--one that Michael Hames-Garcia sets out to correct in this revisionary look at the making and meaning of social identities. We have asked how separate identities--of race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality--come to intersect. Instead, Hames-Garcia proposes, we should begin by understanding such social identities as mutually constituting one another.

Grounded in both theoretical and political practices--in the lived realities of people's experience--"Identity Complex" reinvigorates identity as a key concept and as a tool for the pursuit of social justice. Hames-Garcia draws on a wide range of examples to show that social identities are central to how exploitation works, such as debates about the desirability of sexual minority identities in postcolonial contexts, questions about the reality of race, and the nature of the U.S. prison crisis.

Unless we understand precisely how identities take shape in relation to each other and within contexts of oppression, he contends, we will never be able to eradicate discrimination and social inequality. By analyzing the social interdependence of identities, Hames-Garcia seeks to enable the creation of deep connections of solidarity across differences.

The authors of the essays in this unique collection explore the lives and cultural contributions of gay Latino men in the United States, while also analyzing the political and theoretical stakes of gay Latino studies. In new essays and influential previously published pieces, Latino scholars based in American studies, ethnic studies, history, performance studies, and sociology consider gay Latino scholarly and cultural work in relation to mainstream gay, lesbian, and queer academic discourses and the broader field of Chicano and Latino studies. They also critique cultural explanations of gay Latino sexual identity and behavior, examine artistic representations of queer Latinidad, and celebrate the place of dance in gay Latino culture. Designed to stimulate dialogue, the collection pairs each essay with a critical response by a prominent Latino/a or Chicana/o scholar. Terms such as "gay," "identity," "queer," and "visibility" are contested throughout the volume; the significance of these debates is often brought to the fore in the commentaries. The essays in "Gay Latino Studies" complement and overlap with the groundbreaking work of lesbians of color and critical race theorists, as well as queer theorists and gay and lesbian studies scholars. Taken together, they offer much-needed insight into the lives and perspectives of gay, bisexual, and queer Latinos, and they renew attention to the politics of identity and coalition.

"Contributors." Tomas Almaguer, Luz Calvo, Lionel Cantu, Daniel Contreras, Catriona Rueda Esquibel, Ramon Garcia, Ramon A. Gutierrez, Michael Hames-Garcia, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Maria Lugones, Ernesto J. Martinez, Paula M. L. Moya, Jose Esteban Munoz, Frances Negron-Muntaner, Ricardo L. Ortiz, Daniel Enrique Perez, Ramon H. Rivera-Servera, Richard T. Rodriguez, David Roman, Horacio N. Roque Ramirez, Antonio Viego

In Fugitive Thought, Michael Hames-Garcma argues that writings by prisoners are instances of practical social theory that seek to transform the world. Unlike other authors who have studied prisons or legal theory, Hames-Garcma views prisoners as political and social thinkers whose ideas are as important as those of lawyers and philosophers.

As key moral terms like "justice," "solidarity," and "freedom" have come under suspicion in the post-Civil Rights era, political discussions on the Left have reached an impasse. Fugitive Thought reexamines and reinvigorates these concepts through a fresh approach to philosophies of justice and freedom, combining the study of legal theory and of prison literature to show how the critiques and moral visions of dissidents and participants in prison movements can contribute to the shaping and realization of workable ethical conceptions. Fugitive Thought focuses on writings by black and Latina/o lawyers and prisoners to flesh out the philosophical underpinnings of ethical claims within legal theory and prison activism.

Michael Hames-Garcma is assistant professor of English and of philosophy, interpretation, and culture at Binghamton University, State University of New York.