The Coloniality of Age: Temporal Dominance and the Governance of Maturity

This dissertation explores the coloniality of age, examining how age of consent laws historically functioned as tools of colonial domination and continue to perpetuate Eurocentric models of development and temporality. Drawing on decolonial theory, queer temporality, and feminist critiques of universalism, the project interrogates the global application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), particularly its universal age of consent standard. While the UNCRC aims to protect children from sexual exploitation, it imposes Euro-modern constructions of childhood and maturity, flattening cultural specificities and reinforcing hierarchies of moral progress. By highlighting the colonial history of age governance, this dissertation raises critical questions about how to navigate ethical commitments from within imperial legal structures. The analysis begins with a historical account of age of consent laws, tracing their colonial origins and their role in structuring imperial time—a unidirectional, developmental timeline that hierarchizes societies. This temporal logic denies colonized populations access to adulthood and humanity, relegating them to perpetual immaturity. The project critiques universal rights frameworks in transnational feminist interventions, which often reproduce the colonial logics they seek to disrupt. Drawing on Aníbal Quijano, María Lugones, and Serene Khader, the dissertation argues that the age of consent must be decolonized to disentangle it from its colonial and teleological underpinnings. By introducing the concept of phases—temporalities that resist linear narratives and emphasize relational, context-dependent growth—the project proposes an alternative framework for addressing sexual violence. This reimagined universal standard centers anti-imperialist praxis, balancing youth protection with the recognition of their agency and cultural specificity. Ultimately, the dissertation positions the coloniality of age as a critical lens for understanding the intersections of temporality, sexuality, and global power structures, contributing to broader efforts to decolonize human rights discourse and reimagine developmental norms. Addressing exploitation thus requires more than legal intervention; it demands rethinking the temporal and epistemic frameworks that structure how vulnerability, maturity, and agency are understood.