Women of Color and Material Culture

Catalog description

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the ways that gender and race shape the histories of cultural production and material culture, aiming to problematize the historical sidelining of the contributions of women of color in global history, recognizing their deep impacts on their respective communities, on racial identity, and cultural authenticity. By centering the lived experiences and the labor of women of color, we are able to perceive of a more just and equitable world, where traditional histories have commonly elided, appropriated, or violated these contributions in historical and cultural accounts. The course will interrogate the concept of labor and production from a number of disciplinary vantage points, focusing primarily on foodways and commodity culture, all while situating women of color as the core category of analysis.