INTS 475: Special Topics

INTS 475-003: Black Girl Studies
(Fall 2022)

04:30 PM to 07:10 PM R

Enterprise Hall 274

Section Information for Fall 2022

This new course introduces students to the study of Black girlhood. An emerging interdisciplinary field, Black girlhood studies includes academicians, artists, and activists. It is about radical knowledge production, collaboration, and innovative activism. Working within and beyond Black feminist theory, African American history, Black studies, gender studies, and even radical hip hop frameworks, this course makes visible the myriad ways Black girls have insisted on their right to exist freely. We will listen to their voices in this class. We will value and trust their stories. Each week, students will study the history of the inner lives and material conditions of Black girls with special consideration of the developing theoretical frameworks emerging to understand their unique intersectional experiences. We will engage a range of texts, including scholarly articles, music, art, poetry, movies, and novels. The materials will challenge us to wrestle with how race, gender, sexuality, class, and religion shape the identities of Black girls. 

During the semester, students will have an opportunity to consider the experiences of enslaved girls, the liminal social-political spaces they occupied within slave societies, and the slave narratives they produced to illuminate their joys and pains. We will also consider the challenges Black girls faced in the post-Civil War era, their creative expressions of freedom dreaming during the Progressive Era, the Harlem Renaissance, the protracted civil rights period, and our contemporary age. Students will also give special attention to the ongoing hyper-criminalization and sexualization of Black girls. Most importantly, this class will encourage students to locate the acts of refusal and strategies of resistance Black girls (and their communities) use to survive and thrive. 

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 1-18

Studies topics of special interest to undergraduates. Notes: May be repeated for credit when topic is different. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 18 credits.
Specialized Designation: Topic Varies
Schedule Type: Lec/Sem #1, Lec/Sem #2, Lec/Sem #3, Lec/Sem #4, Lec/Sem #5, Lec/Sem #6, Lec/Sem #7, Lec/Sem #8, Lec/Sem #9, Lecture, Sem/Lec #10, Sem/Lec #11, Sem/Lec #12, Sem/Lec #13, Sem/Lec #14, Sem/Lec #15, Sem/Lec #16, Sem/Lec #17, Sem/Lec #18
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.