"Research is formalized curiosity." zora neale hurston

Framed by two eras (1850-1983 and 1983-2000), this class in intellectual history traces academic origins of race and gender studies back to 1850, when abolitionist Lucy Stanton at Oberlin College earned what is recognized as the first four-year degree granted to a Black woman.  Stanton’s commencement speech titled, “A Plea for the Oppressed,” is archived as a forbearer to other social justice education primary sources available at institutions like Howard University, Spelman College, Princeton University, Emory University, and University of Massachusetts-Amherst. 

This inclusive survey course connects scholar-activists from Anna Julia Cooper, Mary McLeod Bethune, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, and Pauli Murray to Toni Cade Bambara, Barbara Smith, Angela Davis, Patricia Hill Collins, and Kimberlé Crenshaw in ways that center the process of scholarly community building and creative resistance.   

This foundational readings class contextualizes the 1970s growth in race & gender college course development and also complements the "Introduction to Black Women's Studies" and "Black Feminist Thought" courses where students explore foci like transgender and nonbinary studies, Afropessimism, Black socialism & communism, Diaspora, Afrofuturism, and other essential developments alluded to but not fully covered in these initial publications. 

Essentially, BWST 101 shows how the field developed in universities and illuminates the gaps which new scholarship must fill.