María Cristina Lugones (January 26, 1944 – July 14, 2020)[1][2] was an Argentine feminist philosopher, activist, and Professor of Comparative Literature and of women's studies at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and at Binghamton University in New York State.
[3] She identified as a U.S-based woman of color and theorized this category as a political identity forged through feminist coalitional work.
[6][7] Lugones's work has been influenced by Gloria Anzaldúa, Combahee River Collective, Audre Lorde, Marilyn Frye, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Frantz Fanon, and Aníbal Quijano.
[9][10][11] Lugones is the author of Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions (2003)[12] a seminal, highly praised collection of essays,[13] many of which were originally published in Hypatia, Signs, and other journals.
Among the essays included are "Playfulness, ‘World’‐Travelling, and Loving Perception,"[14] which addresses the experience of navigating hyphenated identities from a phenomenological perspective.
Lugones explained we need the attribute of playfulness to relate with others since it allows us to exist with an openness to accepting and creating new ideas without any rules or barriers to hinder us.
[21] Drawing on historical examples of pre-colonial, gynecratic Native American tribes, Lugones situates gender as a colonial classification system that divides and subjugates people differently depending on multiple intersectional factors including class and ethnicity.
[22] Lugones was diagnosed with her third occurrence of lung cancer in late 2019 and hospitalized with pneumonia-like symptoms after undergoing radiation treatment in 2020.