Being at Home: Living Autonomously in an Unjust World

Being at Home reimagines liberal philosophy through the lens of intersectionality, showing how race, gender, and caregiving relationships reshape our understanding of what it is to live a life of one's own. With powerful narratives from her lived experience, this book exposes how societal structures intrude on personal sovereignty and elevate stress, with a focus on Asian American women. In Being at Home, Asha Leena Bhandary offers a bold reimagining of liberal political philosophy through the lens of intersectionality. Engaging deeply with race, gender, and caregiving relationships, Bhandary reorients traditional discourse around autonomy, establishing the significance of her lived experience as a biracial Asian American woman, philosopher, and mother in the American Heartland. By shifting the focus from abstract individualism to embodied, relational autonomy, Being at Home reframes key debates in liberalism, multiculturalism, and feminist care theory. Bhandary argues that autonomy cannot be meaningfully theorized without attending to the values of belonging and care--especially for women of color, whose lives are often shaped by exclusion and systemic stress. Drawing on personal narrative and interdisciplinary scholarship--including Asian American philosophy, Black feminist thought, Latinx feminism, health disparities research, psychology, and reproductive justice--Bhandary develops a compelling framework for intersectional liberalism. This new approach to liberal theory confronts the realities of social hierarchy and group boundaries and offers tools for resilience, counterfactual living, and belonging. Being at Home is essential reading for anyone seeking a more inclusive, care-centered vision of freedom, one that responds to the complexities of contemporary life and expands the possibilities of liberal thought.