Anancyism and the Dialectics of an Africana Feminist Ethnophilosophy: Sandra Jackson‐Opoku's The River Where Blood Is Born

Hypatia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-181
Author(s):  
Laura Gillman
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Teleological Explanation ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Philosophy Of Race ◽  
Feminist Thought ◽  
Black Feminisms

Although intersectionality has been widely disseminated across the disciplines as a tool to center women of color's developed perspectives on social reality, it has been notably absent in the scholarship of feminist philosophy and philosophy of race. I first examine the causes and processes of the exclusions of women of color feminist thought more generally, and of intersectionality in particular. Then, focusing attention on Black feminisms, I read Sandra Jackson‐Opoku's 1997 novel, The River Where Blood Is Born, with and against Paget Henry's Africana ethnophilosophy. I model an interdisciplinary, intersectional approach to Henry's ethnophilosophy, broadening its philosophical scope by historicizing the liminality that characterizes the realities of many diasporic Black women. I also develop an interpretation of the female protagonists to suggest how many Black women within different historical contexts develop practices to recover African symbolic and discursive registers as a means to claim their subjectivities. Additionally, I challenge Henry's teleological explanation for an increasingly secular Africana philosophical identity.

Gender Theory in Philosophy of Race

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Zack
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
White Women ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Philosophy Of Race ◽  
The Subject

The subject of critical race theory is implicitly black men, and the main idea is race. The subject of feminism is implicitly white women, and the main idea is gender. When the main idea is race, gender loses its importance and when the main idea is gender, race loses its importance. In both cases, women of color, especially black women, are left out. Needed is a new critical theory to address the oppression of nonwhite, especially black, women. Critical plunder theory would begin with the facts of uncompensated appropriation of the biological products of women of color, such as sexuality and children.

scholarly journals Defining the Flow—Using an Intersectional Scientific Methodology to Construct a VanguardSTEM Hyperspace

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Jedidah C. Isler ◽  
Natasha V. Berryman ◽  
Anicca Harriot ◽  
Chrystelle L. Vilfranc ◽  
Léolène J. Carrington ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Physical World ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Scientific Methodology ◽  
Black Feminisms ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The Right

#VanguardSTEM is an online community and platform that centers women, girls, and non-binary people of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. We publish original and curated content, using cultural production to include a multiplicity of identities as worthy of recognition and thus redefine STEM identity and belonging. #VanguardSTEM is rooted firmly in Queer, Black feminisms which delineate the experiences and critiques of Black women matter and that these insights can foster a restorative and regenerative construction of the cultures in which we exist. In describing how #VanguardSTEM descended from counterspaces, we draw on speculative fiction to define a #VanguardSTEM hyperspace as a fluid “place-time” that is born digital and enabled by social media, but materializes in the physical world for specific purposes. As Black women in STEM, we consider how our situated knowledges and scientific expertise inform our process. We propose an intersectional scientific methodology to address the influence of embodied observation, embedded context and collective impact on scientific inquiry. Through #VanguardSTEM, we assert, without apology, the right of Black, Indigenous, women of color to self-advocate by fully representing ourselves, our STEM identities and interests, without assimilation.

Womanist Inquiry for Social Justice in Curriculum

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina N. Ross
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Women Educators ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Multiple Systems ◽  
Informal Curriculum ◽  
Black Women Educators

Womanism is a social justice-oriented standpoint perspective focusing on the unique lived experiences of Black women and other women of color and the strategies that they utilize to withstand and overcome racialized, gendered, class-based, and other intersecting forms of oppression for the betterment of all humankind. Much of Womanist inquiry conducted in the field of education focuses on mining history to illuminate the lives, activism, and scholarly traditions of well-known and lesser-known Black women educators. Womanist inquiry focusing on the lives and pedagogies of Black women educators serves as an important corrective, adding to official historical records the contributions that Black women and other women of color have made to their schools, communities, and society. By providing insight into the ways in which processes of teaching and learning are understood and enacted from the perspective of women navigating multiple systems of oppression, Womanist inquiry makes a significant contribution to studies of formal curricular processes. Womanist inquiry related to informal curriculum (i.e., educational processes understood broadly and occurring outside of formal educational settings) is equally important because it offers alternative interpretations of cultural productions and lived experiences that open up new spaces for the understanding of Black women’s lived experiences. A common theme of Womanist curriculum inquiry for social justice involves physical and geographic spaces of struggle and possibility. Indeed, many of the culturally derived survival strategies articulated by Womanist scholars focus on the possibilities of working within the blurred boundaries and hybridized spaces of the in-between to achieve social justice goals. In addition to the provision of culturally congruent survival strategies, Womanist inquiry also provides sources of inspiration for contemporary Black women and other women of color engaged in curriculum work for social justice. The diverse forms of and approaches to Womanist inquiry in curriculum point to the fruitfulness of using Womanism to understand the intersectional thoughts and experiences of Black women and other women of color in ways that further social justice goals.

Societal Factors and Workplace Perceptions

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Ashley Huderson ◽  
Brandy Huderson
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Support Programs ◽  
Stem Fields ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Academic Factors ◽  
Societal Factors ◽  
Existing Data

Despite the growing number of women and minorities in STEM occupations, underrepresentation of Black women in the STEM workforce persists as they hold only 2.4% and 2% of science and engineering jobs, respectively, though they make up 6.4% of the total population. Despite these numbers, the African American women who are in STEM fields have been shown to excel at exceptional rates. The purpose of this chapter is to examine existing data, strategies, and models that address social determinants of professional STEM attainment for Black women. This chapter will explore the importance of intersectional identities and how this influences Black women's success in STEM fields in addition to understanding how counterpaces function to enhance persistence and advance the success of women of color in STEM fields. Understanding the non-academic factors that affect minority women's persistence in STEM allows for a broader conversation around implications for findings for academic and social support programs.

Constructing Conducive Environment for Women of Color in Engineering Undergraduate Education

2017 ◽  
pp. 416-440
Author(s):  
Hyun Kyoung Ro ◽  
Kadian McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Women Students ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
White Women ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Academic Environments ◽  
Four Year Institutions

The engineering field, in particular, struggles to recruit and retain students, especially women of color. Thus, consideration of how academic environments, such as treatment by faculty and peers, interaction with faculty, and available resources for learning and tutoring, uniquely affect women of color is examined. Several theories, such as critical racial theory, intersectionality, and campus climate framework, highlight the importance of examining individual characteristics and details of the environmental context. This study used data from a sample of 850 women students in 120 U.S. engineering undergraduate programs from 31 four-year institutions. Black women engineering students experienced and perceived more differential treatment because of their race/ethnicity but interacted more with faculty than White women students. This study provides critical implications for policy and practice regarding how administrators and faculty members can design engineering programs to create better climate and offer resources for women of color students.

Second to None

2019 ◽  
pp. 211-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ginny Jones Boss ◽  
Tiffany J. Davis ◽  
Christa J. Porter ◽  
Candace M. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Contingent Faculty ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Critical Race Feminism ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
Barriers And Opportunities ◽  
Experiences Of Women

The purpose of this chapter is to foreground the experiences of women of Color who serve in full-time, contingent faculty roles and interrogate the policies and practices that present both barriers and opportunities for these faculty members within the academy. Using a conceptual framework of previous literature in combination with critical race feminism and structuration theory, the authors discuss the ways in which identity (race, gender, and age) and position (contingent vs. tenure-track) influence faculty life and teaching. Throughout this discussion, the authors also introduce results from a study they conducted on Black women contingent faculty. The chapter concludes with the authors offering suggestions for institutional policy and practice.

Mentoring and Supervision for Women of Color Leaders in North American Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-45
Author(s):  
Elena Sandoval-Lucero ◽  
Tamara D. White ◽  
Judi Diaz Bonacquisti
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Women Leaders ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Supervisor Training ◽  
Cultural Wealth ◽  
Black Women Leaders ◽  
Mutual Empowerment

Reflecting on their mentoring and supervision experiences as Latina and Black women leaders in higher education, this article proposes that Women of Color employees are more effective when supervisors give them space to draw upon their own rich histories and cultural wealth in their professional lives. Viewed through the lens of Relational Cultural Theory, which grew out of the work of Jean Baker Miller and colleagues providing culturally relevant, affirmative supervision is a growth-fostering experience for both employee and supervisor. The tenants of RCT include authenticity, growth-fostering relationships, mutual empathy, and mutual empowerment as aspects of supervision that are particularly effective for employees with multiple intersected identities working in higher education spaces. The authors make recommendations for supervisor training that would allow supervisors to draw upon the cultural capital of their diverse employees to provide healing from oppression and build resilience through validation of cultural assets and approaches to leadership.

scholarly journals “Are You Sure, Sweetheart, That You Want to Be Well?”: The Politics of Mental Health and Long-Suffering in Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 263
Author(s):  
Belinda Waller-Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Bell Hooks ◽  
Alternative Healing ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Communal Healing ◽  
Definition Of

In analyzing the woman-centered communal healing ceremony in Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters, this article considers how these types of womb-like spaces allow female protagonists to access ancestral and spiritual histories that assist them in navigating physical illnesses and mental health crises. It employs Bell Hooks’ Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery alongside Arthur Kleinman’s definition of illness as social and transactional to demonstrate that the recognition of illness, and the actualization of wellness, necessitates collective and communal efforts informed by spiritual and cultural modes of knowledge, including alternative healing practices and ancestral mediation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document