African American Women's History

Historical examination of black women’s experiences in U.S. from antebellum era to present. By situating their 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 their historical lives and what are challenges to such discoveries? Examination of their individual and collective struggles for freedom from racism, sexism, and heteropatriarchy as well as their participation in and challenge to social movements, including suffrage, women’s liberation, civil rights, and black power.

P/NP or letter grading.