African American Women's History

(Same as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies M141.) Historical examination of black women’s experiences in U.S. from antebellum era to present. By situating black women’s experiences within major historical transitions in American history, exploration of key themes, including gender formation, sexuality, labor and class, collective action, gender and sexual violence, reproduction, and role of law. How have intersecting forms of oppression impacted black women’s historical lives? How is difference constructed through interrelated and overlapping ideologies of race and gender? How do historians uncover black women’s historical lives and what are challenges to such discoveries? Examination of black women’s individual and collective struggles for freedom from racism, sexism, and heteropatriarchy, as well as black women’s participation in and challenge to social movements, including suffrage, women’s liberation, civil rights, and black power. Investigation of black women’s intellectual history, including their cultural productions.

Letter grading.