FGSS 4561

Black Girlhood Studies: Rememory, Representation, and Re-Imagination

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

How has history shaped our notion of Black girlhood? What is our collective understanding of Black girlhood? How do we see and understand Black girls? Black Girlhood Studies is a multidisciplinary field that draws on education, literature, psychological, and sociological perspectives as tools to see and honor Black girls' lived experiences. In this seminar course, we will use a mixture of lectures and facilitated discussions to provide an overview of Black girlhood as it relates to historical and current-day social, political, and cultural constructions of Black girlhood within and beyond the United States. We will also interrogate how Black girls deconstruct and interrupt these social constructions by engaging in scholarly works, popular press articles, poetry, music, film, and novels. Throughout the course, we will make space to imagine a world where Black girls' ways of knowing, being, and experiencing the world are honored.   

• Identify the principles and values undergirding research and practice in Black Girlhood Studies and connect these ideas to your experiences.
• Recognize and examine the foundational concepts, theories, and research methods in the field of Black girlhood studies and articulate how the study of Black girlhood has shifted over time.
• Critically assess how political, economic, and cultural developments can impact Black girls' development and holistic wellness.
• Synthesize information from multiple sources (e.g., peer-reviewed journal articles, films, and novels) and communicate the information to a lay audience.

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