Judith Butler

photo credits: Miquel Taverna - CC-BY-SA-4.0

American philosopher and gender theorist

1956 -

movement: post-structuralism
country of citizenship: United States of America
educated at: Yale University
occupation: philosopher, writer, university teacher, sociologist, literary critic, feminist, journalist
award received: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Theodor W. Adorno Award, Lysenko Prize, Albertus-Magnus professorate, Brudner Prize, honorary doctorate of the Bordeaux Montaigne University, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres
influenced by: Michel Foucault

Judith Pamela Butler (born 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminist, queer, and literary theory. Since 1993, she has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is now Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory. She is also the Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School.Butler is best known for her books Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990) and Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (1993), in which she challenges conventional notions of gender and develops her theory of gender performativity. This theory has had a major influence on feminist and queer scholarship. Her works are often studied in film studies courses emphasizing gender studies and performativity in discourse. Butler has supported lesbian and gay rights movements and has spoken out on many contemporary political issues. In particular, she is a vocal critic of Zionism, Israeli politics, and its effect on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, emphasizing that Israel does not and should not be taken to represent all Jews or Jewish opinion.
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