This article theorizes the emergence of critical joy studies as both a scholarly field and an activist movement dedicated to examining how joy functions as a form of political resistance among minoritized communities. Drawing on feminist affect theory, women of color feminisms, and queer of color critique, the author traces how scholars and activists have increasingly turned to joy as a theoretical framework for understanding political resistance in the face of interlocking systems of oppression. The article first establishes the theoretical genealogy of critical joy studies through foundational texts by feminist, queer, Black, and Latinx writers who have long positioned affect as central to political transformation. It then examines how the field gained coherence during the COVID-19 pandemic, concurrent with heightened public awareness of anti-Black police violence and rising authoritarianism. Through concepts like “decolonial joy” and the “politics of Black joy,” scholars have illuminated how communities experience joy within and against conditions of trauma and oppression. The article also documents how activists have incorporated joy into social movements, from voguing memorials after hate crimes to community events celebrating trans resilience. While acknowledging joy’s limitations and vulnerability to neoliberal co-optation, the author argues that critical joy studies represents a vital approach to both opposing unconscionable violence and sustaining the Black, Latinx, and queer life that has always been marked by it. For those committed to this emerging field, joy becomes both theoretical framework and praxis for imagining otherwise in contexts where imagination itself is threatened.
