Women in the African Diaspora

Catalog description

This seminar draws upon the life experiences of women in both Africa and the African Diaspora by making use of different kinds of primary sources, historical accounts, and fictive works from across the African continent, Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America. It challenges stereotypical constructions of gender by analyzing the complex historical relationships that have shaped and redefined the diverse experiences, ideas, institutions, politics, cultures, and social relations of African and African Diaspora women. The course also addresses issues and challenges present in contemporary Africa by exploring specific themes that have been central to Africa’s colonial, gendered, complex, and changing history, and that have continued to shape the experiences of African and African-descendant women in the Diaspora.