scholarly journals Trauma and Empowerment in Tina McElroy Ansa’s Ugly Ways

2021 ◽  
pp. 002193472098642
Author(s):  
Folabomi L. Ogunyemi
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Black Feminist Thought ◽  
Black Feminist Theory ◽  
Trauma Theory ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
Black Feminist

Ugly Ways (1993) by Tina McElroy Ansa has been overlooked as a significant contribution to African American feminist literary fiction. This paper performs a close reading examining the novel’s thematic intersection of Black feminist theory and trauma theory. Part one of this essay defines Black feminist theory and outlines key concepts of Black feminist thought. Parts two and three focus on the protagonist, Esther “Mudear” Lovejoy, and analyze her “change” through the lenses of Black feminist theory and trauma theory, respectively, highlighting the ways in which Ugly Ways articulates a conception of Black womanhood defined in equal parts by empowerment and psychic pain. Part four argues that Black feminist theory and trauma theory are not just compatible, but consonant. Ultimately, Ugly Ways depicts African American women as complex human subjects and moves beyond conventional historical, literary, and popular representations.

Shifting Paradigms

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
John M. Coggeshall
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Black Feminist Theory ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
The Us

This chapter places the story of Liberia in an academic context. A Prologue outlines the book’s major themes. A review of the historical, anthropological, sociological, philosophical, and critical black feminist theory literature contextualizes the story of Liberia for an academic audience. Liberia is an example of African American resistance, resilience, and agency -- a “freedom colony” similar to others in the US and world. The chapter also summarizes and critiques the methods and sources used for the book.

scholarly journals Poetry as Praxis + “Illumination”: Toward an Epistemically Just Health Promotion for Resistance, Healing, and (Re)Imagination

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 20S-26S
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Petteway
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Black Feminist Theory ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
A Site

Health promotion is facing a most challenging future in the intersections of structural racism, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), racialized police violence, and climate change. Now is a critical moment to ask how health promotion might become more responsive to and representative of people’s daily realities. Also how it can become a more inclusive partner in, and collaborative conduit of, knowledge—one capable of both informing intellects and transforming hearts. It needs to feel the pulse of the “fierce urgency of now,” and perhaps nothing can reveal this pulse more than the creative power of art—especially poetry. Drawing from critical and Black feminist theory, I use commentary in prose to conceptualize and call for an epistemically just health promotion guided by poetry as praxis—not just as method. I posit that, as praxis rooted in lived realities, poetry becomes experiential excavation and illumination; a practice of community, communion, and solidarity; a site and source of healing; and a space to create new narratives of health to forge new paths toward its promotion. I accordingly suggest a need to view and value poetry as a critical scholarship format to advance health promotion knowledge, discourse, and action toward a more humanized pursuit—and narrative—of health equity.

scholarly journals Resolving the problem of Algorithmic Dissonance: An unconventional solution for a sociotechnical problem

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiv Issar
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Black Feminist Theory ◽  
Double Consciousness ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
Sociotechnical Imaginaries ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Structural Inequities ◽  
Sociocultural Systems

In this paper, I propose the concept of “algorithmic dissonance”, which characterizes the inconsistencies that emerge through the fissures that lie between algorithmic systems that utilize system identities, and sociocultural systems of knowledge that interact with them. A product of human-algorithm interaction, algorithmic dissonance builds upon the concepts of algorithmic discrimination and algorithmic awareness, offering greater clarity towards the comprehension of these sociotechnical entanglements. By employing Du Bois’ concept of “double consciousness” and black feminist theory, I argue that all algorithmic dissonance is racialized. Next, I advocate for the use of speculative methodologies and art for the creation of critically informative sociotechnical imaginaries that might serve a basis for the sociological critique and resolution of algorithmic dissonance. Algorithmic dissonance can be an effective check against structural inequities, and of interest to scholars and practitioners concerned with running “algorithm audits”.

Teaching to Digress

2015 ◽  
pp. 120-145
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis ◽  
Roselyn K. Banda ◽  
Sarah A. Kinley
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Black Feminist Theory ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
College Curriculum ◽  
Traditional Course ◽  
Collective Inquiry ◽  
Oppositional Discourse ◽  
The U.S

This chapter explores the challenge of creating a “liberated” classroom, one that digresses from the norm in both content and structure according to feminist principles. This teaching project was designed to create a unique learning environment through the use of black feminist pedagogy. Charged with teaching a cross-listed course (Women's Studies, Black Studies) entitled “Black Feminist Theory,” the teaching team consisted of a professor, a graduate student, and an undergraduate student. The team came together from a diversity of educational experiences in the U.S. and Africa. This chapter is a reflection of the team's experiences co-teaching a “non-traditional” course as well as a collective inquiry about the strategic importance of incorporating oppositional discourse into the college curriculum.

Fannie Barrier Williams, the New Negro, and Black Feminist Pragmatism, 1893–1926

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-77
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Deegan
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
New Woman ◽  
Political Advocacy ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
New Negro ◽  
American Women ◽  
The New Woman

Fannie Barrier Williams brilliantly analyzed and participated in the tumultuous changes in black Chicago from 1887-1926. She specialized in essays and political advocacy for African American women. She compared them to “the new woman” and “the New Negro,” and by 1895, she had defined African American women as uniquely combining the characteristics of both groups. She also employed the concepts and ideas of pragmatists and feminist pragmatists and brought black women’s ideas and experiences to this social theory.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-162
Author(s):  
J. Lorenzo Perillo
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Imaging Technique ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Black Feminist Theory ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
The U.S

The conclusion reflect on the meaning of Hip-Hop dance as witnessed in the U.S. embassy’s diplomatic convention “America in 3D: Diplomacy, Development, and Defense” (2011) in the Philippines. It argues for more engagement between Black feminist theory and Filipina performances, like “Pinays Rise,” a dance within the convention that challenged gender and class stereotypes of Filipinas as caregivers. The conclusion first analyzes “Pinays Rise,” and then connects the convention’s theme to the historical significance of stereoscopy, or the depth-enhancing imaging technique. The conclusion reviews the book’s main arguments and addresses the potential uses for performative euphemism in academic studies of culture and race. Finally, it calls for a holistic approach to Hip-Hop that reckons with discourses of Filipino cultural politics and dance.

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