Overview

In 1968 the Third World Liberation Front at San Francisco State College demanded the creation of a Third World studies program to counter the existing curricula that ignored issues of power-notably, imperialism and oppression. The administration responded by institutionalizing an ethnic studies program; Third World studies was over before it began. Detailing the field's genesis and premature death, Gary Y. Okihiro presents an intellectual history of ethnic studies and Third World studies and shows where they converged and departed by identifying some of their core ideas, concepts, methods, and theories. In so doing, he establishes the contours of a unified field of study-Third World studies-that pursues a decolonial politics by examining the human condition broadly, especially in regard to oppression, and critically analyzing the locations and articulations of power as manifested in the social formation. Okihiro's framing of Third World studies moves away from ethnic studies' liberalism and its U.S.-centrism to emphasize the need for complex thinking and political action in the drive for self-determination.

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9780822362319

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Reviews

Displaying his customary erudition and insight, Gary Y. Okihiro rethinks the meaning of ethnic studies, highlighting the existence of a rich but often neglected tradition of anti-subordination scholarship capable of delineating and critiquing how the histories of imperialism and capitalism have shaped the fatal couplings of social identities and power. A generative and thought provoking work by a sophisticated and advanced thinker, Third World Studies will challenge many ethnic studies scholars and impact how ethnic studies will proceed to think of itself. -- George Lipsitz, author of American Studies in a Moment of Danger A bracing account of the phantom Third World studies, the field that never was. Gary Y. Okihiro has had his feet planted firmly in the fields of ethnic studies and global studies, two fields that would have been part of Third World studies, making him well-positioned to write this book. -- Vijay Prashad, author of The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South

A bracing account of the phantom Third World studies, the field that never was. Gary Y. Okihiro has had his feet planted firmly in the fields of ethnic studies and global studies, two fields that would have been part of Third World studies, making him well-positioned to write this book. --Vijay Prashad, author of The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South

Author Information

Gary Y. Okihiro is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the author of several books, most recently, American History Unbound: Asians and Pacific Islanders.

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