World Making in Nepantla: Feminists of Color Navigating Life and Work in the Pandemic

Writings from feminist scholars of color about their experiences during the pandemic.

Bringing uncertainty, fear, and change, the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world, altered people’s lives, and sparked a wave of introspection. Underserved communities—people of color, women, and queer people among them—were affected the most, and their experiences, in turn, reflected hope and opportunities to reinvent themselves individually and collectively. Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa’s use of nepantla—the Náhuatl word meaning “in-between space,” the en medio and a liminal space between worlds imbued with change—World Making in Nepantla collects writings about the hurdles feminist scholars of color faced during the pandemic years.

Contributors explore how COVID affected feminist scholars of color while recognizing the ways in which inequality influences experience and also celebrating the resilience of communities all over the world. Dispatches from classrooms and quarantined homes and introspective essays on disability, mutual aid, and borders are included among the essays here. These pieces serve as a concrete record, capturing an ephemeral time already being lost to memory. Created during the heart of the pandemic, World Making in Nepantla is an honest and intimate recording of how feminist scholars of color navigated struggles and found strength during an era that forever changed the modern world.

Gloria González-López is an award-winning author and Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Sharmila Rudrappa is an award-winning author, Professor of Sociology, and department head at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Christen A. Smith is a Professor of Anthropology and Black Studies at Yale University. She is a Black feminist and African diaspora anthropologist.