Black Feminisms: Thought, Practice, and Experience

Catalog description

This course examines the historical, critical, and theoretical perspectives that have led to Black feminist theory and praxis as developed by women of African descent (Black women). Spanning from the 19th century to the present with a focus on the 1970s Black feminist intellectual tradition that challenged the hegemony of “western” and global feminisms, the course explores how Black feminist theorists simultaneously embrace and complicate established feminist and anti-racist readings of race and gender oppression. The course analyzes Black feminist thinkers’ pioneering contributions to anti-racist and feminist thought by centering Black feminist understandings of intersectionality and womanism. It investigates how Black feminist thinkers interrogate specific concepts such as sexuality and gender roles, leadership, family, community, criminal justice, pedagogy, and educational systems. It examines how theory and practice intersect and inform each other in Black feminist perspectives by investigating forms of social and political activism such as work in labor, civil rights, Black power, feminist, womanist, and other movements. Students will develop the analytical skills necessary to think critically about feminism, race, gender, and sexuality and will learn to recognize Black women’s central roles in shaping past, current, and future lives and institutions.