Topics in African-American Studies (380-0-20)

Topic

Black Feminist Theory

Instructors

Marquis Bey

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-435: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

This course begins not from the premise, necessarily, of an intellectual and political genealogy of black women. Though also not to the exclusion of this. But rather, this course is one that thinks black feminist—not black "women's"—theory and theorizing; this course chronicles the ways that the political, intellectual, ethical, and social resound radically and progressively and names that resonance—and all its vibrations and textures—black feminist theory. Thus, we will, of course, be reading a variety of black women along the jagged gendered spectrum between and beyond "cis" and "trans," but more specifically we will, in this course, be tracing the ways radical politics and ethics arise in such a way as to interrogate the established parameters of race and gender normativity, of our social world. To do this, we will be reading the work of people like bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins, Toni Morrison and Saidiya Hartman, Jennifer Nash and Hortense Spillers, and more.

Learning Objectives

• Reference an archive of thinkers, writers, and visionaries who have offered glimpses into a more just world
• Articulate sophisticated thoughts regarding race, gender, and their intersections
• Express clearly their ideas and feelings regarding systems, histories, and discourses of oppression and also joy
• Develop their ideas in writing and speaking, as well as in individual and group settings

Class Materials (Required)

All materials will be provided to students on Canvas

Class Attributes

SoC Additional Distro