Phidd, Katrina

"Maya Mackrandilal: A Reckoning with Monstrosity"

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Major: Sociology

Minor: Geography

Senior; College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

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Abstract

Informed by her own identity as a queer woman of color, Maya Mackrandilal’s project How to be a Monster challenges the dominant expectation that individuals from marginalized communities show apathy towards their oppression. The project is centered around a reclamation of the term “monster” in describing “the other,” rejecting common images of “the exceptional multiracial,” the respectable Black individual, and the model minority. The frameworks of Black Feminist Thought, the idea of the “feminist killjoy,” and queer theory, are applied in analysis of her work, providing for an understanding of the ways in which Mackrandilal constructs her own identity and conceptualizes her position within American society.

Class: Honors 301

Professor: Laura Kina