“I Am Not Done Yet”: Preserving the Contributions of Radical Black Women Intellectuals

Session Submission Type: Non-Paper Session: Dialogue Format

Abstract

This roundtable will stage a discussion between Black women scholars concerning their work(s) on preserving the intellectual and political contributions of Black women intellectuals/radicals in the Americas. Dr. Carole Boyce Davies’ pathbreaking work on the life and intellectual contributions of Claudia Jones has given our generation of scholars a blueprint for political biographical work, and has contributed significantly to the diffusion and preservation of the ideas and writings of Jones. She is largely responsible for the renaissance surrounding Claudia Jones’ extensive oeuvre of political and theoretical work(s). Dr. Ashley Farmer has been researching Black women radicals for over a decade. Her book, Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era, is the first comprehensive study of Black women’s intellectual and political contributions to Black power. Her next book, Queen Mother Audley Moore: Mother of Black Nationalism (forthcoming from UNC Press) examines the life and activism of Audley Moore's–a towering figure and Black radicalism–and is the first biography of Moore. Dr. Bedour Alagraa has studied and written extensively on the works of Jamaican writer Sylvia Wynter, and is a member of the editorial team currently working on Wynter’s forthcoming monograph, Black Metamorphosis. She has also worked on archiving Wynter’s personal and professional papers, and is co-editing, alongside Anthony Bogues, an edited volume of Sylvia Wynter’s unpublished essays, forthcoming in 2023. The roundtable will address the following questions: 1) what are some of the challenges of studying and documenting the ideas of Black women intellectuals, many of whom have been excised from normative historical analyses of Black radicalism?; 2) what is an important lesson you have learned about your own intellectual commitments while researching the lives and intellectual contributions of Claudia Jones, Audley Moore, and Sylvia Wynter?; 3) what needs to be done to ensure this crucial work continues?

Sub Unit

• Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association

Chair

• Tanisha C Ford, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Panelists

• Ashley D. Farmer, The University of Texas at Austin

• Carole Boyce Davies, Cornell University

• Bedour S Alagraa, The University of Texas at Austin