Theorizing Vulnerability

Abstract

This commentary considers the relevance of theory in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and protests against racial injustice. The events of 2020 have called attention to the visceral, lived conditions of illness, poverty, and injustice and the systemic conditions that perpetuate them. As the limitations of existing institutions and bodies of knowledge are exposed, it becomes urgent to cultivate alternative ways of knowing and practicing. This commentary builds on the recently edited volume Log 48: Expanding Modes of Practice to discuss how theories and practices of intersectional feminism can bridge the scales of personal, visceral experience and systemic analysis to think outside of existing frameworks and imagine change.