Unit 2:
Black Women’s Studies: A Field Forged in Struggle
| Class Day | Readings & Activities |
|---|---|
| WEEK 2 Thursday, Sept 17 | Presentations for Symposium #1: Black Women’s Studies Required Readings & Medias: Hull, Gloria T., and Barbara Smith. “Introduction: The Politics of Black Women’s Studies.” In James, Stanlie M., Frances Smith Foster, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, eds. 2009 [1982]. Still Brave: The Evolution of Black Women’s Studies, xi-2. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY.Walker, Alice. “Womanist.” In Still Brave, 22–23. Coleman, Monica A. “Must I Be a Womanist?” In Still Brave, 115–17. Brown, Elsa Barkley, Deborah K. King, and Barbara Ransby. “African American Women in Defense of Ourselves.” In Still Brave, 45–47. Christian, Barbara. “But Who Do You Really Belong To—Black Studies or Women’s Studies?” In Still Brave, 86–92. Kat Baque. “What Is: Womanism” Recommended Readings:Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. “Black Women’s Studies: The Interface of Women’s Studies and Black Studies.” Phylon 49, no. 1/2 (1992): 33–41.Brewer, Rose M. “Black Feminism and Womanism.” In Companion to Feminist Studies, edited by Nancy A. Naples, 91–104. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2020.Smith, Barbara. “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism.” The Radical Teacher, no. 7 (1978): 20–27. |
Tuesday | Lecture DayRequired Readings & Medias:Fuentes, Marisa J. “Introduction.” In Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive, 1–12. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.Cooper Owens, Deirdre. 2021. “The History of Micro-Organisms, Black Genealogies, and the Matter of Privacy.” The Black Scholar 51 (1): 62–66. Monegro, Sophia. “Origins of Black Feminist Thought in the Americas: La Negra del Hospital in Colonial Santo Domingo.” Global Black Thought 1, no. 2 (2025): 289–321Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists Recommended Reading:Acosta Corniel, Lissette. “Black Women in Sixteenth-Century Santo Domingo: Free, Enslaved, Founders, and Explorers.” In Transatlantic Bondage: Slavery and Freedom in Spain, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico, edited by Lissette Acosta Corniel, 157–80. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2024. |
| Class Visit to Smith Botanical Gardens Required Readings & Medias:Walker, Alice. “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” In In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose, 231–43. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. | |
| Tuesday | Library Visit with Xochitl and EstherUnit 1 Assignment Due |
| Lecture Day & Infographic Workshop (bring your laptops)Required Readings & Medias:Combahee River Collective. “A Black Feminist Statement: The Combahee River Collective.”In Still Brave, 3–11. Recommended Reading:Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. “Introduction.” In How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, 1–28. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017. |
