Recipient of a Critical Theory Dissertation Fellowship, 2016-2017

Paul Martorelli is a doctoral candidate in Political Science with a Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. His primary focus is political theory, which he integrates with Critical Theory, queer theory, and feminist theory. His dissertation “Mobilization and Its Discontents: Identity Politics in the Age of Identity Critique” examines how subordinated identity groups can organize for political change on their own behalf while avoiding self-descriptions that exclude or marginalize some of their members. The dissertation describes and critiques the kinds of injurious effects that can result when normative identities are constituted in and through collective political action; drawing on thinkers such as Crenshaw, Habermas, Warner, and Wittgenstein, the dissertation goes on to offer a set of political languages and practices vis-à-vis normativity and identity that could avoid such effects.