Decolonial Sexualities: Paola Bacchetta in Conversation with Suhraiya Jivraj and Sandeep Bakshi

In this roundtable forum, decolonial dyke-queer theorist Paola Bacchetta begins with a discussion of the span of decolonial queer theorization as it gained momentum in several fields of critical inquiry. Connecting it to contemporary mobilizations – anti-imperial, decolonial, anti-racism, feminist, queer – appears in this scenario as one of its key constituent features. Understanding, critiquing and transforming relations of power emerges as a necessary dimension of decolonizing queer/sexualities. For Bacchetta, decolonial queer/sexualities emanates from and brings into focus disparate geopolitical sites, analytics, expressions and activisms. Bacchetta proposes the concept-term “situated planetarities” to think about how power operates, and about subjects, in any specific context in relation to the planet. She elaborates the notions “co-formations” and “co-productions” to consider different kinds of relations of power (coloniality, racism, capitalism, class, misogynarchies, including sexism, queerphobia, transphobia) that are co-constitutive of each other and that structure all of life. She provides transnational examples. It is, in this regard, a compelling observation for both academic scholarship of activism and grassroots political mobilization.