African-American Feminist Theory

Kristie Dotson, Michigan State University Department of Philosophy, has published Knowing in Space: Three Lessons from Black Women's Social Theory in the January/June issue of labrys, études féministes/estudos feministas.

In attempting to create a US Black feminist philosophy, I have uncovered three lessons in US Black women’s social theory. They are the following: 1) oppression is a multistable, social phenomenon; 2) many US Black women identify occupying a negative, socio-epistemic space as part of their experience of oppression; and 3) addressing oppression for many Black women will require grappling with politics of social spatiality. These insights are by no means new. However, the fact that these tropes can be identified in almost 200 years of Black women's social theory in the US is far more distinctive than many allow.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.