Seminar in Religious Ethics: Black Women’s Voices of Liberation

Standing at the intersection of racial and gender discrimination, African American women have engaged structures of oppression from a distinct perspective. This course explores the origins and development of womanist and black feminist thought, beginning with abolitionists like Maria Stewart and Sojourner Truth, and extending to calls for justice during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights eras. We will also consider the continuing struggle for liberation in the work of contemporary black feminist ethics. We will examine the religious impulses that inform African American women’s responses to marginalization and consider how the study of black feminism informs our understanding of women and race in contemporary American society. 3 hrs. sem.