STANDING ON THE AUCTION BLOCK: TEACHING THROUGH THE BLACK FEMALE BODY

 
 
 
 

STANDING ON THE AUCTION BLOCK: TEACHING THROUGH THE BLACK FEMALE BODY

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Title: STANDING ON THE AUCTION BLOCK: TEACHING THROUGH THE BLACK FEMALE BODY
Author: Howard, Shewanee D
Description: While previous research has examined the experiences of Black women in academe, the current project seeks to determine how Black female faculty members experience teaching in the Black female body, specifically within the confines of the classroom. This project is launched first from examining the life of Saartjie Baartman. As a teenager, Saartjie Baartman was taken from her home in South Africa to London and Paris where she was physically, emotionally, and socially exploited by “researchers” who were finding ways to prove racial inferiority. She was named the “Hottentot Venus” by Europeans where she “danced” and performed exhibiting what “researchers” have termed her protruding genitalia, specifically her buttocks. Investigating her life and stereotypical images of the Black female body in the American Imagination provides a vehicle to examine the preconceived notions that students bring with them to the classroom. Saartjie Baartman, Mammy, Sapphire, and “Jezebel” are juxtaposed with the experiences of three Black female faculty members to illustrate the continued struggle to adopt more positive images of Black women in history and in popular culture. Through interviews and observations, three Black female faculty members from a Mid-western university were studied using Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 1998, 2000) and Performativity (Butler, 1990) as frameworks. Though these women experienced feelings of isolation and invisibility within academe, the classroom becomes a sanctuary where in they are reminded why they teach. They face resistance from students in the classroom, yet this space provides an opportunity to renew their ideas and their passion to produce critical thinkers and socially just learners.
Permanent Link: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1187188330
http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/18261
Date: 2007

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