Endarkened Feminist Epistemology: Excerpts From a Phenomenological Case Study

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-24 - Praxis and Pedagogy: Creating Legitimacy Through Resistance

Abstract

This paper is a case study of transnational endarkened feminist epistemology (EFE) in Cythnia B. Dillard’s graduate study abroad class. Dillard, who created EFE as a teaching/research paradigm in 2000, grounded it in several frameworks: Black feminist thought (Hill-Collins, 1990); standpoint theory (Harding, 1987); the tenets of African American spirituality; and the work of Parker J. Palmer (1983). This study examines how Dr. Dillard actualizes her endarkened feminist epistemology and how her students experience and make meaning of it. Using classroom observations, qualitative interviews with Dillard, and dialogues with Dillard’s students, this paper delves into meaning-making experiences of EFE, and related themes such as healing, identity development, connecting to past histories, spirituality and the evolution of the phenomenon over time.

Author

• Sarah Militz-Frielink, University of Illinois at Chicago