Finn Finneran Humanities
Bastards Out of White America: White Lesbians & Race Treason
Scholars Journal
Martyr of the immigrant solidarity movement, Renee Good, comes from a long line of white lesbian activists who stood on the side of humanity. Because this anti-racist lineage is rarely viewed as consequential to US social movements, Finn seeks to analyze the literary contributions to anti-imperialist and anti-racist movements of politicized white lesbians. By researching white lesbian novels, memoirs, and social movement texts from the post-Civil Rights era he hopes to reveal a distinct anti-racist politic. He asks, what might come from a conversation between this literature and US working-class theories of whiteness? His hypothesis is that these texts will display a politics of empathy, solidarity, and historical duty that is rooted in lesbians’ social positions as outsiders, members of the working-class, and products of the long-60s’ revolutionary movements.
Major: American Studies
Mentor: Michael Mark Cohen