Course Review: Black Feminist Theory

by Grace Ambrossi

The only reason I look forward to Mondays this semester is because of Black Feminist Theory. Professor Ferguson and Gavriel Cutipa-Zorn are invested in teaching students how black feminist theory is more than just an engagement with identity politics, as many others have misunderstood it to be. It is a critique of colonialism, imperialism, and the subsequent violences committed to the mind and body as a result of these processes. It is a confrontation with how the state has framed black women to be anything, but liberated and self-governed and radical and beautiful. It is an insistence on a relational politics that requires the liberation of the collective - collective being EVERYONE - for the liberation of the self. Additionally, one of the central questions we have discussed is what does it mean to have a meaningful life? Black feminist theory is a class that demands an imagining of an entirely different world and order for ourselves and others. These writers and scholars, from Toni Cade Bambara to Saidiya Hartman to Michelle Cliff, to name a few, point us towards these possibilities. Professor Ferguson and Gavriel encourage us to practice and expand upon the voices of these writers. We have inherited their works - they are now our departure points.