Emancipation and the Unjust Past

Over their history, emancipatory movements and activists have drawn on the past in their struggles to change the present. Consider how the ‘witch-hunt’ in Early Modern Europe has fired feminists’ imagination over and over again or how US prison abolitionist movements have relentless denounced the institution of prison as a continuation of slavery.

What should be the relationship between unjust history and present emancipatory politics? Do we owe anything to the unjust past in fighting against present oppression? This project develops a theoretical and normative framework to understand the role that unjust history should play in activism.

The past may generate serious obligations in activist politics and be crucial to nourish present emancipatory struggles. Yet invoking it is neither theoretically nor ethically unproblematic. It poses tough questions about the proper use of history, the need to adjudicate between different and competing interpretations of a purportedly shared history within activist politics, and the problematic neglect of voices that even emancipatory readings of the past are too often guilty of.   

To unpack the potential and challenges in using history in emancipatory activism, the project investigates diverse cases within feminist and LGBTQ+ activism.