The Gloria Wekker Reader compiles articles, essays, interviews, poems, and letters by the Afro-Surinamese Dutch theorist and activist, Gloria Wekker. Wekker is a preeminent scholar in feminist Black diaspora studies, especially known for her developments in epistemology and methodology, conceptualizations of sexuality, and mapping of the connections between race, gender, and empire. These writings demonstrate Wekker’s theoretical and political prowess, illuminating how her scholarship was foundational in shifting the fields of anthropology, feminist and queer studies, and Black diasporic studies. Featuring a foreword by Angela Y. Davis, engaging with The Gloria Wekker Reader is an invitation for interdisciplinary and intergenerational dialogue to inspire political action.

Gloria Wekker is Emeritus Professor of Gender and Ethnicity at Utrecht University. She is the author of White Innocence, published by Duke University Press, as well as The Politics of Passion.

Chandra Frank is Assistant Professor of Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies and the 2024–2027 Taft Professor of the Public Humanities at the University of Cincinnati.

Nancy Jouwe is a cultural historian and an independent researcher, writer and curator.

Mikki Stelder is Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

"If you’re new to Gloria Wekker’s work, as I was, this volume of interviews, essays, letters, and more will be an excellent introduction to the Afro-Surinamese Dutch theorist and activist."
-- Karla J. Strand Ms. Magazine

Acknowledgments  ix
Foreword / Angela Y. Davis  xi
Introduction: Gloria Wekker—Crafting Alternative Cultural Archives, Shaping Biracial Intimacies / Chandra Frank, Nancy Jouwe, and Mikki Stelder  1
Part I: Sexuality on the Move
Introduction / Roderick Ferguson  25
“Tower of Babel on the Suriname River” (1997)  29
1. Sexuality on the Move  31
2. What’s Identity Got to Do with It? Rethinking Identity in Light of the Mati Work in Suriname  73
3. Afro-Surinamese Women’s Sexual Culture and the Long Shadow of the Past  93
4. One Finger Does Not Drink Okra Soup: Afro-Surinamese Women and Critical Agency  113
5. Politics and Passion: In Conversation with Gloria Wekker / Andil Gosine  143
6. The Coded Language of Hottentot Nymphae and the Discursive Presence of Race, 1917  155
Part II. Black Europe
Introduction / Gail Lewis  187
“Denial”  195
7. Survivors: Portrait of the Group Sister Outsider  197
8. Another Dream of a Common Language: Imagining Black Europe  209
9. What Happens to Black Africa in the Afro-Surinamese Transatlantic Diaspora?  223
10. Afropessimism  233
Part III. The Cultural Archive
Introduction / Sudeep Dasgupta  249
“Acknowledgment”  253
11. How Families Navigate Empire  255
12. Introduction to White Innocence  263
13. A Wind-Swept Plain: The History of Gender and Ethnicity-Thought in the Netherlands (with Helma Lutz)  297
14. White Innocence: Reflections on Public Debates and Political-Analytical Challenges. An Interview with Gloria Wekker, Nella van den Brandt, Lieke Schrijvers, Amal Miri, and Nawal Mustafa  325
15. Diving into the Wreck: Exploring Intersections of Sexuality, “Race,” Gender, and Class in the Dutch Cultural Archive  343
16. Building Nests in a Windy Place: Thinking on Gender and Ethnicity in the Netherlands  365
Part IV: Transnational Feminism
Introduction / Fatima El-Tayeb  385
“Transatlantic”  389
17. Naming Ourselves as Black Women in Europe: An African American-German and Afro-Dutch Conversation (with Cassandra Ellerbe-Dueck)  391
18. A Letter to Audre Lorde  411
19. Still Crazy After All Those Years . . . Feminism for the New Millennium  413
20. “How Does One Survive the University as a Space Invader?”: Beyond White Innocence in the Academy 427
21. Reading Obama: Collective Responsibilities and the Politics of Tears (with M. Jacqui Alexander and Gail Lewis)  443
Contributors  465
Index  467