African American Women

Catalog description

This course offers an introduction to the sociological, historical, and political experiences of African American women, their roles and contributions to society. Through an interdisciplinary approach, we will pay particular attention to historical and contemporary responses to intersectional challenges African American women face. Drawing from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, through the use of print and digital texts, oral histories, film, music, poetry, and local events, we will investigate various forms of social and political activism including work in labor, civil rights, black power, feminist, womanist, and other movements, the impact of popular culture on what it means to be an African American woman, as well as the implications of claiming such an identity. By focusing on key moments, institutions, and figures in history, the course demonstrates African American women's central roles in the development of American institutions as we know them today, and challenges students to engage critically with questions of race, gender, class, and sexuality, as they wrestle with theories of Black Feminist Thought and Womanism.