240128 VO The Black Woman and the intersectionality of Black Feminism in Black atlantic (2025S)

This course examines the foundations, ideas, concerns, and implications of what it means to be a ‘Black Woman’ and Black feminism within the context of the Black Atlantic (African Diaspora). A major goal of this course is to promote dialogue and critical discussion about the Black woman and Black feminism as a site of theory and practice emphasizing social, political, and personal transformation. This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the historical and cultural richness of the experience of Black women. This includes the changing status of women in traditional societies compared with changes in the status of Black women in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and the Caribbean.

Objectives: Through class discussions, and study of the materials that will be used during the course, students will demonstrate increased competencies in:
1. An understanding of the pre-colonial contributions of African women, the family, and matrilineal /patriarchal societies before transatlantic
slave trade from a diverse and inclusive perspective.
2. A study of Black feminism from the perspective of “learning” historical truth about African women and the diaspora.
3. The awareness of the contributions that the Black woman in the Black Atlantic have made to the feminist movement.
4. Black feminists’ theories, and their applications to the feminist movement and a comparative look at other feminists’ theories.
5. Greater understanding of multiple modalities of social-economic inequality to which African women in the diaspora have adopted, resisted, and
contested.
6. An analysis of how the Black woman and Black feminism have changed over time.

Goals:
1. This course will examine the political, social, and economic change of women in Africa and areas of the Diaspora that includes The Caribbean,
Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. from the standpoint of learning about the “Black Woman and her History”. In so doing, this course will
analyze the survival of traditional institutions which have been affected by modernization and western values from a “decolonized” and an
“anti-racist” perspective.
2. Issues concerning “the Black Woman” that have redefined her position in society as an African woman and her contributions to civilization and
society such as slavery, racial discrimination, employment, continuity of the family, and education will be studied in relation to the overall Black
experience from a “diverse” perspective with “multiple views”.
3. We will examine the role that the Black woman played in resistance movements throughout history as well as the effects of racial, gendered,
class, and other types of oppression on them. Discussion topics include gender, sexuality, ethnicity, identity, economics, education, family,
politics, and religion.
4. We will use Black feminist texts and articles which center on the experiences of Black women, rather than those that relegate the Black woman
to the margins. Such writings demonstrate the Black woman’s agency and draw on the Black woman’s particular ways of signifying, testifying,
and serving as counter-narratives to the disparaging myths, which for centuries have circulated regarding the female Black body.
5. Students will be introduced to the varied realities of “The Black Woman” throughout the African Diaspora. By exploring the different cultural,
political, and historical contexts in which Black women live, we will attempt to define the continuities and conflicts that exist within the ever-
growing field of Black Women’s Studies.