WGS 208 Black Feminist Theory (AFR)

This course explores contemporary and foundational Black Feminist thought. Throughout the class, we will examine several traditions of Black Feminism, discovering how each tradition intervenes into hegemonic knowledge systems, provides methods and ethics for political practice, and attends to the problems and experiences of everyday life. Where Black Feminism is not simply a qualifier of "mainstream" feminism, its concerns extend far beyond interventions into white feminist and masculinist black freedom movements. Indeed, the ideologies’ fundamental concerns are with analyzing and contesting the terms and means of race, gender, class and other systems of power. To that end, exploring everything from mid-20th Century movements to "hip hop" feminism, this course will attend to: labor and economy, nationalism, carcerality, sexuality, desire, and embodiment, aesthetics and expressive culture, political and personal relationships, movement-building, gender violence, the politics of respectability, intersectionality and standpoint theory, reproductive justice, environmental justice, theories of humanity, and the everyday business of survival. (African Americans’, Appalachians’, and Women's Perspective.)