Intellectual identity is not defined by one’s subject matter or birthplace

Evidence

In what sense could I possibly claim to be a Caribbean intellectual? Certainly, not in the most obvious sense of the term. My work has not been largely about the Caribbean. I have not been actively present in the enormously important work of trying to write the history of the Caribbean and Caribbean societies in the period of independence, including writing its past from the perspective of an independent nation. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 1190

Categorization

• SEED: A possible essay angle on how an intellectual’s identity is claimed versus earned — who gets to be called a native intellectual of a tradition.
• XREF: connects to: the MOC “The False Compass: How Racial Categories Reorder Bodies, Minds, and the Self”