Sponsored by The Black Humanities Collective and The Deleuze Interest Group
Monday, March 17th, 4pm, 4700 Haven Hall, DAAS Conference Room
Public Lecture and Roundtable Discussion:
"Theorizing Black Female Sexuality" brings Dr. Jennifer C. Nash and Dr. Amber Musser - two leading theorists of black feminism, black women's erotics, and pornography - together to present and discuss their work. It is an effort to engage with recent developments in the study of pornography and black women's sexuality, and to explore where and how this growing field intersects with a variety of other traditions, from black feminist theory and visual culture studies to queer theory and poststructuralist criticism.
Tuesday, March 18th, 10am, 5511 Haven Hall, DAAS Lemuel Johnson Center (breakfast served)
Graduate Student Workshop: "Teaching Sex:"
The workshop will focus on pedagogical issues that emerge from teaching about race, gender, sex, sexualities, and the politics of pleasure. Please RSVP to: molldrem@umich.edu, subject line "Nash/Musser Workshop."
Speaker Bios:
Jennifer C. Nash is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Women's Studies at the George Washington University. Her research focuses on intersectionality, black feminism, black sexual politics, race and visual culture, and race and the law. Her first book, The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography, is forthcoming from Duke University Press in March 2014. In the book, Dr. Nash rewrites black feminism's theory of representation. Her analysis moves beyond black feminism's preoccupation with injury and recovery to consider how racial fictions can create a space of agency and even pleasure for black female subjects.
Amber Musser is an Assistant Professor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University Saint Louis. Her research includes the history of science, critical race studies, and queer and feminist theory. Her book, Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism, is forthcoming in the summer of 2014 with New York University Press. It examines local histories of masochism in tandem with sensation as an analytic category to illustrate what it feels like to be embedded in structures of domination such as patriarchy, colonialism, and racism, and what it feels like to embody femininity, blackness, and pain.
Theorizing Black Female Sexuality is Generously Sponsored By:
The Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, The Department of American Culture, The Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, and the Visual Culture Workshop
