Judith Butler is one of the most influential contemporary American philosophers, ethicist, and gender theorist, serving as a Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. Raised in a Jewish family in Ohio, they received early ethical training in synagogue classes. Butler frequently points to these Jewish philosophical frameworks as foundational to their critiques of state violence, power, and the mechanisms of exclusion.
Butler reshaped humanities scholarship with their 1990 book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, which introduced the theory of “gender performativity”. The work established Butler as a foundational figure in queer theory and third-wave feminism, making them one of the most cited scholars in modern humanities. Their later research expanded into political philosophy, examining biopolitics, precariousness, and “grievability”—the political determination of whose lives are socially valued and mourned. They received the Theodor W. Adorno Prize in 2012 for their contributions to moral philosophy.
Butler applies their theory of grievability directly to the Israel-Palestine conflict, serving on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and endorsing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In their 2012 book Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism, Butler argues for separating Jewish ethical traditions from modern Israeli state nationalism. A longtime critic of the occupation, they advocate for a binational political framework built on equal civil rights, asserting that Palestinian lives must be recognized as fully equal and grievable.