Weekly outline

  • General

    • Black Women, Spirituality, Religion REL025

      Fall 2017

      Professor Chireau

      Religion Department, Pearson Hall 206

      Mondays,1:15-4:00 pm

      Kohlberg Hall Room 116


  • September 4 Introduction

    • Important! Prior to first class, start reading Alice Walker, POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY

    • Our first meeting will be an introduction to the course, the syllabus, and to each other

    • For next time: view short videos and read these biographical/historical pieces that reflect the varieties of spiritual experiences of black women, including:

      1. Emile Townes, “Black Women from Slavery to Womanist Liberation,” in Rosemary Ruether, In Our Own Voices, pp. 154-205. An introduction to the field of womanist scholarship on religion.

      2. The mythical figure of Marie Laveau 

      3. Congresswoman Mia Love

       

      4. Episcopal Priest Pauli Murray

      5. Read about the founders of a school for Black Witches

    • 6. A minister for the New Age

       



    • Responses here, DUE SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. ALL BLOG POSTS DUE PRIOR TO NEXT CLASS. Prompt for this week

  • September 11 African Women

  • September 18 Resistance


    • Film: SANKOFA, part one

      This film makes a powerful and disturbing statement about black women's spiritual and embodied experiences of resisting slavery. The story is set in modern West Africa but unfolds beyond time and space. Reflect on this contribution by an African male writer and director, versus Alice Walker, an African American female writer. Be sure to read LOSE YOUR MOTHER before our class discussion.

    • Saidiya Hartman, LOSE YOUR MOTHER: A JOURNEY ALONG THE ATLANTIC SLAVE ROUTE,  pt. 1 AND pt. 2

    • Spoken word performance by one of the featured actors in SANKOFA

  • September 25 Religion & Slavery

    • We continue our reading and discussions on slavery and religion in the U.S., focusing specifically on black women's experiences. It is a vast topic. It is important to understand that slavery impacted black women's lives in different ways in different periods and places. Context is important. Start with Lillian Webb, BLACK WOMEN AND RELIGION IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD; as before, look through the primary documents and note the ones that you find most interesting. 

      Then, please read Sylviane Diouf's Remembrance of Women and Slavery, an article that looks at the historical experiences of women across the diaspora. Consider the places where black women's Religion/Spirituality is mentioned in this piece; why must we re-think our notions of what these categories look like?

    • Why is it so difficult to locate African religions in the period of American slavery? Jason Young, in "African Religions in the Early South" seeks to answer that question with an overview of this field of study. Note: this is a dense, richly documented article that you will want to spend some time on.

    • Yvonne Chireau, “The Uses of the Supernatural,” in Susan Juster, A MIGHTY BAPTISM

    • Sharla Fett, Working Cures, "Spirit and Power," pp. 36-59

  • October 2 Spirituality & Slavery

    • Please read this article that incorporates bits and pieces from our discussion on African religions in the US, including shouts and circle dances, death practices, and material culture. Methods from the study of Religion bring together these elements to provide a coherent picture of black spirituality. Likewise, consider this article about a Smithsonian exhibit on African Muslims in America. Can we also consider the possibility that African Muslim women were part of this early religious landscape? How would you investigate this possibility?

    • This week we want to consider the spiritual lives of black women during the slavery period, as we did last week, but focus on spirituality within the visible institutionalized "Religions" context. We want to better understand how institutional religious life - e.g., churches, organizations, etc., converged with non-institutionalized spirituality. 

    • William Andrews, SISTERS OF THE SPIRIT, read "Introduction" and "Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee"

    • Jean Humez, GIFTS OF POWER, pp. 1-50, 125-154

    • Delores Williams, "Visions, Inner Voices, Apparitions, and Defiance in Nineteenth-Century Black Women's Narratives" Women's Studies Quarterly 21, nos. 1-2 (1993): 81-89

    • Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness, pp. 34-59

    • Black Women, Agency, Slavery: Civil War period. Where is religion? Where is spirituality?

    • Blog responses to week's readings here

  • Fall Break, October 13-23

    • Over break, start reading Grace Halsell, SOUL SISTER. Regular readings and coursework are due when we return next week, below. We will discuss Halsell in a later session

  • October 23 Feminist Womanist Discourses

  • October 30 Diaspora

    • Tracey Hucks, “Burning with a Flame in America,” JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION 17, Fall 2001


    • Please read: Rhonda Manigault-Bryant, Talking to the Dead, pp.1-7, 104-135

  • November 6 Midterm Papers Due

  • November 13 Performing Black Womanhood

  • November 20 Performing Religion

    • Juanita Bynum, "No More Sheets,"excerpt   

    • Juanita Bynum, "Prophetess" 

    • Lifetime Television, PREACH Trailer (we will watch episode one in class)

    • The Pew, Tyler Perry Black Church Parody

    • Judith Casselberry, "The Beauty of Holiness"

    • Readings: Manigault-Bryant, Womanist and Black Feminist Responses to Tyler Perry, pp. 1-13, 73-88, and 145-162


    •  "Georgina, Esther, and Satan" - warning: this is *uncensored* and very profane

    • Blog responses for this week here

  • November 27 Performing Spirituality

  • December 4 #Syllabus Sessions

    In lieu of an exam, your final project for this class involves the creation of a crowd-sourced syllabus centered on Black women, spirituality, and religion. The syllabus will be produced collaboratively and must be comprehensive and methodologically or topically focused. For next week you should come up with at least three areas or subjects and begin to form groups for discussion, organizing, and gathering your research materials and sources. Post your three potential syllabus topics here in the blog before our next class.

    Also before Monday read this article on the history and production of these forms of scholar-activism. Note that contrary to what you may have learned, as early as the 1800s black women in the US have been actively engaged in this kind of collective public academic-political work. Part of the value of this work, I would argue, is to dispel false assumptions concerning black women's intellectual commitments and foster a renewed critical consciousness that can bring about well-being through educational empowerment. So please choose a topic that has some interest and meaning for you.