In the social and cultural histories of women and feminism, Black women have long been overlooked or ignored. The Routledge Companion to Black Women's Cultural Histories is an impressive and comprehensive reference work for contemporary scholarship on the cultural histories of Black women across the diaspora spanning different eras from ancient times into the twenty-first century. Comprising over 30 chapters by a team of international contributors, the Companion is divided into five parts:

• A fragmented past, an inclusive future
• Contested histories, subversive memories
• Gendered lives, racial frameworks
• Cultural shifts, social change
• Black identities, feminist formations

Within these sections, a diverse range of women, places, and issues are explored, including ancient African queens, Black women in early modern European art and culture, enslaved Muslim women in the antebellum United States, Sally Hemings, Phillis Wheatley, Black women writers in early twentieth-century Paris, Black women, civil rights, South African apartheid, and sexual violence and resistance in the United States in recent history.

The Routledge Companion to Black Women's Cultural Histories is essential reading for students and researchers in Gender Studies, History, Africana Studies, and Cultural Studies.

About the Author

Janell Hobson is Professor and Chair of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, USA.

Reviews

"I am humbled by this breathtaking collection of essays from an extraordinary group of scholars. Spanning the diaspora and the millennia, this timely collection explores both familiar and new areas of black feminist historical analysis and cultural interrogation, highlighting new writings on black women's intellectual traditions and challenging the silences in the archives that have long denied women of color - both free and enslaved - their roles in making history. From the queens of Ancient Egypt to modern day activists and leaders, there is much here for everyone. This is an essential addition to bookshelves and classrooms everywhere!"

Kate Clifford Larson, author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero.

"The collection we need in this global moment, The Routledge Companion to Black Women's Cultural Histories reveals how black women around the world are central to our current conceptualizations of knowledge, politics, art, literature, feminisms, and survival. This set of essays is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the struggles we all face and how, with black women as our guides, we can push for a better and vibrant future."

Ashley D. Farmer, University of Texas-Austin, USA, author of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era.

"The Routledge Companion to Black Women's Cultural Histories is unprecedented in its scope and ambition. In 35 chapters, scholars from Africa, the Americas, and Europe, at different stages of their careers, document the transformative creativity of Black women across the African diaspora. Collectively these chapters demonstrate the complexity, strength, heterogeneity and communal nature of Black women's cultural history. They also inform our understanding of race and gender today, by questioning white canonical constructions of culture and creativity and finding new ways to narrate histories of those long silenced by archives and professional historians. This bold new collection will shape the field of Black women's cultural history for some time to come."

Kate Dossett, University of Leeds, UK, author of Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal.

Book Information
ISBN 9780367707552
Author Janell Hobson
Format Paperback
Page Count 386
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 680g