“I expressed regret to the MLA officers and staff, and my colleagues accepted my apology. I extend that same apology to MLA members.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Figure timeline
Judith Butler
Judith Butler is an American feminist, queer philosopher, and gender studies scholar whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, psychoanalysis, and the fields of feminist and queer theory, academic freedom, and literary theory.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · American feminist and queer philosopher (born 1956) · philosopher · writer · university teacher · sociologist · literary critic · women's rights activist · journalist · art theorist · queer theorist · social scientist · also Judith Butler, Butler
Born 24 February 1956 · Q219368
73 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
5 photos
🔊 How to say “Judith Butler”
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Award
2026· 6 entries
The Guardian: Heart, smarts and pragmatism: why health minister Mark Butler is suddenly a contender as a future PM
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: To all the betting shops littering our high streets: people power is coming and the odds are against you | Dawn Butler
- #news
- #headline
Public attention spiked: 3,332 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4× the usual 842, with 2 article edits. Editors noted: Reverted edits by Abed shalabi (talk) (AV)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #attention
- #spike
- #pageviews
Awarded honorary doctor of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2026).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
The Guardian: PEN America announce 2026 World Voices festival with Judith Butler and Bill McKibben
- #news
- #headline
2025· 3 entries
The University of California, Berkeley, where Butler is a professor, informed 160 members of the campus community that their names and files had been provided to the US Department of Education in response to an investiga
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The Guardian: This month’s best paperbacks: Percival Everett, Judith Butler and more
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: Judith Butler: ‘Swimming is the closest thing I have to a religion’
- #news
- #headline
2024· 1 entry
Butler stated that the October 7 attacks was an uprising, an instance of armed resistance, rather than an act of terrorism
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2023· 4 entries
“Dictionary of Literary Biography on Judith P. Butler (page 3)”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
Butler published an essay entitled "The Compass of Mourning" in which they "condemn without qualification" the "terrifying and revolting massacre" while at the same time arguing that the attacks by Hamas should be seen i
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“the anti-gender ideology movement should be considered a neo-fascist phenomenon.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Butler said, "the anti-gender ideology movement should be considered a neo-fascist phenomenon
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2021· 6 entries
The Guardian: Judith Butler: ‘We need to rethink the category of woman’
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian published an interview with Butler by Jules Gleeson that included Butler's view of trans-exclusionary feminists (TERFs)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Awarded Catalonia International Prize (2021).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Drawing from Umberto Eco who understood "fascism" as "a beehive of contradictions", they noted that the term fascism "describes" the "anti-gender ideology"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Published “2021 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure” in European Heart Journal — cited 12,210 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
Published “Integrated analysis of multimodal single-cell data” in Cell — cited 15,181 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
2020· 3 entries
That trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERF) is "a fringe movement that is seeking to speak in the name of the mainstream, and that our responsibility is to refuse to let that happen"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“a fringe movement that is seeking to speak in the name of the mainstream, and that our responsibility is to refuse to let that happen”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Published “<i>Planck</i> 2018 results” in Astronomy & Astrophysics — cited 13,431 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
2019· 1 entry
Published “Comprehensive Integration of Single-Cell Data” in Cell — cited 15,389 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
2018· 2 entries
Butler joined a group of scholars in writing a letter to New York University following the sexual harassment suit filed by a former NYU graduate student against his advisor Avital Ronell
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Published “Integrating single-cell transcriptomic data across different conditions, technologies, and species” in Nature Biotechnology — cited 12,969 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
2017· 1 entry
In Brazil while speaking, at least one of whom shouted at Butler, saying "Take your ideology to hell
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2016· 3 entries
Awarded Albertus-Magnus professorate (2016).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Published “<i>Planck</i>2015 results” in Astronomy & Astrophysics — cited 9,891 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
Criticized Hillary Clinton's "limited" feminism and "hawkish" foreign policy, but indicated they would vote for the Democratic nominee, calling the Republican candidate Donald Trump a "danger to democracy as we kno
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2015· 2 entries
Awarded Fellow of the British Academy (2015).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Honorary doctor of the University of Liège (2015).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2014· 1 entry
Awarded Honorary doctor of the University of Fribourg (2014).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2013· 5 entries
The Guardian: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler showed me the transformative power of the word queer | Natalie Hanman
- #news
- #headline
Awarded honorary doctorate from the McGill University (2013).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded honorary doctor of the University of St Andrews (2013).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Published “Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer” in Nature — cited 8,822 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
"I prefer to [provide] a story rather than a category
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2012· 1 entry
Awarded Theodor W. Adorno Award (2012).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2011· 2 entries
Awarded honorary doctorate from the University of Paris-VII (2011).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded honorary doctorate of the Bordeaux Montaigne University (2011).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2009· 1 entry
The Guardian: Review: Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? by Judith Butler
- #news
- #headline
2006· 2 entries
Butler participated in a faculty-organized teach-in against the 2006 Lebanon War at the University of California, Berkeley
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Butler described the militant Islamist groups as "social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2004· 2 entries
Awarded Brudner Prize (2004).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
The Guardian: Review: Precarious Life by Judith Butler
- #news
- #headline
2002· 1 entry
Held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2000· 1 entry
Published “Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology” in Nature Genetics — cited 36,993 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
1998· 2 entries
Denis Dutton's journal Philosophy and Literature awarded Butler first prize in its fourth annual "Bad Writing Competition", which set out to "celebrate bad writing from the most stylistically lamentable passages found in
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Holding faculty appointments in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature and the Program in Critical Theory which they cofounded in 2007
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1997· 1 entry
“Further Reflections on the Conversations of Our Time”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
1996· 13 entries
“Lo más importante es cesar de legislar para todas estas vidas lo que es habitable sólo para algunos y, de forma similar, abstenerse de proscribir para todas las vidas lo que es invivible para algunos.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“There was a brief moment after 9/11 when Colin Powell said “we should not rush to satisfy the desire for revenge.” It was a great moment, an extraordinary moment, because what he was actually asking people to do was to stay with a sense of grief, mournfulness, and vulnerability.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“Las diferencias en la posición y el deseo marcan los límites de la universabilidad como un reflejo ético. La crítica de las normas de género debe situarse en el contexto de las vidas tal como se viven y debe guiarse por la cuestión de qué maximiza las posibilidades de una vida habitable, qué minimiza la posibilidad de una vida insoportable o, incluso, de la muerte social o literal.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“Comprender el género como una categoría histórica es aceptar que el género, entendido como una forma cultural de configurar el cuerpo, está abierto a su continua reforma, y que la 'anatomía' y el 'sexo' no existen sin un marco cultural.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“Sin duda, el matrimonio y las alianzas familiares del mismo sexo deberían ser opciones disponibles, pero convertirlas en modelo para la legitimidad sexual es precisamente constreñir la socialidad del cuerpo de una forma aceptable.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“El 'nosotros' feminista es siempre y exclusivamente una construcción fantasmática, que tiene sus objetivos, pero que rechaza la complejidad interna y la imprecisión del término, y se crea sólo a través de la exclusión de alguna parte del grupo al que al mismo tiempo intenta representar.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“(Simone de) Beauvoir sostiene rotundamente que una "llega a ser" mujer pero siempre bajo la obligación cultural de hacerlo. Y es evidente que esa obligación no la crea el "sexo". En su estudio no hay nada que asegure que la "persona" que se convierte en mujer sea obligatoriamente del sexo femenino”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“El feminismo ha afrontado siempre la violencia contra las mujeres, sexual y no sexual, lo cual debería servir de base para una alianza con estos otros movimientos, ya que la violencia fóbica contra los cuerpos es parte de lo que une el activismo antihomofóbico, antirracista, feminista, trans e intersexual.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“Lo 'real' y lo 'sexualmente fáctico' son construcciones fantasmagóricas -ilusiones de sustancia- a las que los cuerpos están obligados a acercarse, aunque nunca puedan.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“En algunas ocasiones una concepción normativa del género puede deshacer a la propía persona al socavar su capacidad de continuar habitando una vida llevadera.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“Cuando luchamos por nuestros derechos no estamos sencillamente luchando por derechos sujetos a mi persona, sino que estamos luchando para ser concebidos como personas.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“Los activistas intersex trabajan para rectificar la errónea presuposición según la cual cada cuerpo alberga una 'verdad innata' sobre su sexo que los profesionales médicos pueden discernir y traer a la luz por sí solos.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“La tarea de todos estos movimientos (activistas) consiste en distinguir entre las normas y convenciones que permiten a la gente respirar, desear, amar y vivir,y aquellas normas y convenciones que restringen o coartan las condiciones de vida.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
1993· 1 entry
“The Lesbian Phallus and the Morphological Imaginary”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
1992· 1 entry
Before joining the faculty in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley in 1993
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1990· 2 entries
“Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #corroborated
- #nytimes.com
Selling over 100,000 copies internationally, in multiple languages
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1988· 1 entry
“Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
1986· 1 entry
“Sex and Gender in Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
1978· 1 entry
And a PhD in 1984 with the dissertation Recovery and Invention: The Projects of Desire in Hegel, Kojève, Hyppolite and Sartre
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1956· 2 entries
In Cleveland, Ohio, to a family of Hungarian-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Born 1956-02-24.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth