Topics in Transnational Black Studies (381-0-20)
Topic
Black Feminisms in a Francophone Context
Instructors
Silyane Larcher
Meeting Info
Locy Hall 303: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
What is the meaning of "Black Feminism" out of its US experience and initial theorization in the United States? How did women of African descent in Europe (France, Belgium, Switzerland), the Caribbean (Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique), the Indian Ocean (La Réunion, Mayotte, and the Comoros) and Africa (Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo), whose cultures and political experiences were - at least partly - impacted by French and Belgium colonial legacy, forge their critiques of patriarchy, colonialism, and imperialism, racism? How did they also develop their own imagination of social justice, autonomy, and emancipation?
Based on a wide range of materials and references driven by the social sciences, literature, and cinema, this course aims to introduce undergraduate students to a non-US-centered and transnational perspective on Black feminisms. The historical period will span from the early 20th century to the contemporary era. According to specific topics addressed in the class, comparative insights with the English-speaking Caribbean and Africa and women's experiences in the Global South will also be included in the conversation and materials.
Learning Objectives
The pedagogical and intellectual stake of the course is twofold. First, it calls students to reflect on the varying ways in which the very notion of "blackness" (which has no rigorous equivalent in French), and norms of gender and sexuality make sense or not in specific cultural, historical, but also religious and linguistic contexts. Second, exploring those different experiences and expressions of Black feminisms and/or womanisms is an invitation to critically approach the concepts of "subjugated knowledges" and of "black feminist epistemologies".