Black Feminist Theorizing Toward Futurity: A Standpoints Volume

Black Feminist Theorizing Toward Futurity: A Standpoints Volume contains essays that apply Black feminist theory to multiple contexts, critiquing the oppression of the present while imagining Black feminist futures. The essays are divided into sections on critiquing social and institutional relations, decentering whiteness, and authoring Black feminist counternarratives of resistance. The first section of the book critiques institutional structures of health, higher education, and therapy that harm Black women and proposes methods of change. Then, reflecting the volume’s emphasis on a plurality of Black feminisms, students analyze how sociology, white feminisms, and theatrical intimacy direction center white, male, and heteronormative experiences, emphasizing the value Black feminisms bring to these contexts. Finally, the essays consider how counternarratives of resistance can destabilize inequitable power relations to promote Black liberation, concluding with a poem by Marva Cossy and a reflection on the cover art by Tykeisha Swan Patrick. This volume is edited by Dr. Andrea N. Baldwin and Dr. Nana Brantuo and authored by the students from Baldwin’s Black Feminisms graduate course in the Virginia Tech Department of Sociology.