IDENTITY: Sara Arruti Benito (EHU)

Sara Arruti Benito

Sara Arruti Benito researcher
PhD in Procedural Law. Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (EHU)

As a lecturer and researcher in Public Law, I contribute to the IDenti-T project by bringing a socio-legal and feminist perspective that critically examines the relationship between law, identity, and structural inequalities in contemporary democratic societies. My work focuses on how legal frameworks shape access to justice, particularly for those who have been historically excluded from it.

My research is grounded in a structural intersectional gender approach, through which I analyse how stereotypes permeate judicial reasoning and affect access to justice, especially in cases of sexual violence. This line of work is reflected in my recent monograph La transversalidad de género como garantía de tutela judicial efectiva: desafiando el paradigma androcéntrico (Colex, 2025).

From a socio-legal perspective, I conceive of law as a space of production and contestation in which identities are not merely recognised, but also shaped, legitimised, and hierarchised. My approach departs from the premise that law is not neutral; rather, it has a performative dimension that contributes to the production and reproduction of gendered subjectivities, defining which identities are recognised as socially and legally legitimate. Within this framework, I focus on the analysis of groups that have been structurally marginalised by the legal order, examining how legal categories and their practical application contribute to their exclusion, invisibilisation, or lack of protection. I also explore the tensions that arise when legal systems—built upon binary and exclusionary logics—are confronted with the need to protect those who inhabit the margins.

Within the IDenti-T network, I aim to contribute to interdisciplinary dialogue on identity by connecting legal analysis with broader social, political, and democratic processes. I am particularly interested in building bridges between legal scholarship and other disciplines, supporting early-career researchers and students, and developing collaborative and inclusive academic spaces.

In line with bell hooks, I seek to foster environments in which imagination and critical thinking function as forms of resistance to challenge dominant frameworks and open up possibilities for social transformation.