The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference

298 Pages·2014·6.254 MB·English

by  Roderick A Ferguson

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The Reorder of Things
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Di¤erence Incorporated
Roderick A. Ferguson and Grace Kyungwon Hong, Series Editors
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THE REORDER OF THINGS
THE ROERDER OF THINGS
TEH ORERDER OF THINGS
The University and Its Pedagogies
of Minority Di¤erence
Roderick A. Ferguson
Difference Incorporated
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis (cid:129) London
The publication of this book was supported in part by an annual award from
the University of Minnesota Provost’s OfWce from the Imagine Fund for the Arts,
Design, and Humanities.
Portions of chapter 7 were previously published as “Administering Sexuality;
or, The Will to Institutionality,” Radical History Review100 (winter 2008):
158–69. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Duke University Press.
Copyright 2012 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
ISBN 978-0-8166-8271-3
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
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In memory of FOCI (the Faculty of Color Initiative),
in gratitude to its other founding members
(Ananya Chatterjea, Jigna Desai, Vinay Gidwani,
Qadri Ismail, and Hiromi Mizuno),
and in acknowledgment of our efforts
to be in the institution but not of it.
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION AfWrmative Actions of Power 1
1 The Birth of the Interdisciplines 19
2 The Proliferation of Minority Difference 41
3 The Racial Genealogy of Excellence 76
4 The Reproduction of Things Academic 110
5 Immigration and the Drama of AfWrmation 147
6 The Golden Era of Instructed Minorities 180
7 Administering Sexuality; or, The
Will to Institutionality 209
CONCLUSION An Alternative Currency of Difference 227
NOTES 233
INDEX 255
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful that this bookhas been the recipient of much good for-
tune. A generous line of people told me that this was more than a vagabond
errand. David W. Noble, dear friend and treasured colleague, was the Wrst
to say to me, years before I started this project and in response to a con-
ference paper that I wrote, “I think your next book should be on the uni-
versity.” I thank David Eng, who, in a moment of inspiration at a bar in
Philly, came up with the title of this book. For the ways in which they
inspire me, I am indebted as always to M. Jacqui Alexander, Kandice Chuh,
Macarena Gómez-Barris, Gayatri Gopinath, Avery Gordon, Judith Hal -
ber stam, Grace Hong, Eng-Beng Lim, George Lipsitz, Lisa Lowe, Jodi
Melamed, Chandan Reddy, Stephanie Smallwood, and Ruby Tapia: they
are the ones I take with me as I go out to meet the academic world.
For the homes that were opened, the meals that were prepared, the
conversations that were had, the wine that was poured, and the love that
was bestowed, my everlasting gratitude goes to Hakim Abderrezak, Ananya
Chatterjea, Lisa Cacho, Maria Damon, Gina Dent, Priscilla Gibson, Lynn
Hudson, Leola Johnson, Regina Kunzel, Diya Larasati, Jodi Melamed,
David Noble, Gail Noble, Lisa Park, David Pellow, Tony Peressini, Kavita
Philip, Jane Rhodes, Ward Smith, Dara Strolovitch, Deborah Vargas, and
Dag Yngvesson.
Special thanks go to those folks who managed their work lives to make
the life of this project possible: Dr. Sydney Van Nort for her help with the
archival documents at City College; Miglena Todorova for her extraordi-
nary research assistance and for deep friendship and abiding conversations;
and Colleen Hennen, my genius administrative assistant, for her protection
of my writing time while I was chair of the Department of American Studies
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