Black Feminist Futurities in Uncertain Times: Black Women and Femmes' Resistive and Healing Methods

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: "But Some of Us Are Brave": Educational Narratives of Black Girls and Women

Abstract

Drawing on Patricia Hill Collins’ theorization of “the dialectics of oppression and activism” (2000), this paper explores the ways that Black women and femmes imagine and construct alternative spaces and futurities at odds with overlapping systems of oppression and violence. Historicizing their marginality within the academy and the university’s insistence on maintaining dominance animates the central question of this work: How do Black women and femmes engage in resistive and healing practices as they navigate higher education? This work explores how Black women and femmes refuse subjection as they co-construct resistive and healing methods through interviews and focus groups. Emergent themes illuminate the grassroots efforts that arise in contrast to formal and institutional support given to Black boys and men.

Author

• Mary Senyonga, University of California - Los Angeles