Black Feminist, Womanist and Africana Approaches to the Sacred
RELI 211
Spring 2025
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
AFAM 210, FGSS 231 |
Black people have been interpreted as both hyper-religious and hereditary, heretical heathens through a Western/Modern lens. Singularly, the construction of the Black woman in modern discourse has marked the formation of understanding of religion. Just as Black women have grounded longstanding understandings of the sacred and the profane, they too, have engaged in a counter-poetics, sociality and praxis of worldmaking, and a refusal of and resistance to these dominating and dehumanizing regimes of religion of the modern world. The mule of the world has been a captive maternal of otherwise possibility. This course in transhistorical and transnational survey will feature Africana, Womanist, and Black Feminist subjects from the very emergence of the modern through the Black Atlantic to contemporary times. The course will highlight the role non-Christian, African-heritage and expressive cultural persons, practices and communities play in shaping the Black femme divine. Traditions examined include Orisha, Buddhism, Pentecostalism and the Nation of Islam. Featured persons include: Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston, Katherine Dunham, Phillis Wheatley, Rebecca Jackson, Jarena Lee, Barbara Ann Teer, Beyoncé, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toni Morrison, Maryse Condé, Alice Walker, Paulette and Jeanne Nardal, Octavia Butler, Rosetta Tharpe, Billie Holliday, Delores Williams, and M. Jacqui Alexander. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS RELI |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Texts include excerpts from:
PEDAGOGIES OF CROSSING by M. Jacqui Alexander
SISTER OUTSIDER by Audre Lorde
SISTERS IN THE WILDERNESS by Delores Williams
THE LEMONADE READER edited by Kinitra Brooks and Kameelah Martin
LABOR OF FAITH by Judith Casselberry
INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL by Harriet Jacobs
I, TITUBA, BLACK WITCH OF SALEM by Maryse Condé
BLUES LEGACIES AND BLACK FEMINISM by Angela Davis
IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS GARDENS by Alice Walker
SOUL TALK by Akasha Gloria Hull
TAKE BACK WHAT THE DEVIL STOLE by Onaje X.O. Woodbine
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly reading response, Group Presentation, Digital humanities final project |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills a Historical Traditions, Method & Theory or ¿additional course¿ requirement for the Religion major/minor |
| Instructor(s): Millner,Marlon Times: ..T.... 07:10PM-10:00PM; Location: OLIN014; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 28 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 16 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 4 | SO: 8 | FR: 6 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 1 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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