Black Feminist Anthropology, 25th Anniversary Edition

This refreshing and inspiring collection of nine articles and a superb introduction seeks to come to terms with, if not resolve, the triple contradictions found in the title. Each author brings personal experiences of racism, sexism, and other challenges to bear on what are without exception successful examples of what C. Wright Mills called ‘the sociological imagination,’ where biography, intellectual activity, and activism are presented as a seamless whole. Choice

What is so powerful about these women’s voices is that their theory is based not only on a self-reflexive and autobiographical framework, but it is positioned in a framework that boldly declares its commitment to scholarship, theory-making, and social justice. It is a very important book for anthropology, for feminist studies, for African American studies—and ultimately for all of us. Anthropological Quarterly

[Black Feminist Anthropology] boldly disrupts naïve assumptions of an inclusive anthropology [and] places at center questions of positionality and subjectivity when the researchers are Black and female, and the 'consultants' are Black women. [The book] provides a meaningful analysis of the complexities of race and gender research, particularly since these categories are multiple and shifting largely based on history and locale. Contemporary Sociology

This anthology provides a new level of positive visibility and support to Black women creatively engaged in the Black feminist praxis of intellectual activism. Even more important, it serves as a Black feminist strategic intervention in the critical task that Lather has described as 'produc[ing] different knowledge and ... produc[ing] knowledge differently' (Vol. 27, No. 1, Autumn 2001, Pg. 200). This anthology must be read by anthropologists who want to contribute to discussions about the issues raised by the essays in this book and by those of us who are excited by and devoted to the development of interdisciplinary Black feminist praxis. Gender and Society

Anthropologists [in this collection]...disclose how their experiences as Black women have influenced their anthropological practices in Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S., and how anthropology has influenced their development as Black feminists...The authors write eloquently on the complex mix of personal and professional that dominate their lives. Advocate

Black Feminist Anthropology makes a provocative and important contribution to contemporary Black feminism. For the authors in this book, the premise that scholarship and social justice agendas must inform one another fosters a new anthropology that promises to stimulate new questions for us all. Patricia Hill Collins, author of Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice

Black Feminist Anthropology has been an intellectual touchstone guiding my research, teaching, and institutional leadership practices for the past 25 years. Having impacted the fields of anthropology and gender and women’s studies then in profound ways, it is needed now more than ever as we continue to center the experiences of Black women in theory and practice in the academy and in society. Yolanda T. Moses, professor of Anthropology, University of California Riverside

A groundbreaking and vital book that centers the voices and visions of Black women in anthropological research. This book is as imperative today as it was twenty-five years ago. Keisha N. Blain, professor of Africana Studies and History at Brown University

Like few other texts, Black Feminist Anthropology gives Black women social scientists a history. From recovering Zora Neale Hurston’s intellectual labors as an anthropologist to offering autoethnographic windows into contemporary Black feminist knowledge-making, this collection embodies the belief that Black women’s lived experiences matter. Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Louise R. Noun ’29 Chair in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, Grinnell College

Irma McClaurin and her colleagues bring Black Feminist Anthropology into the center of the discipline. Each of these carefully crafted essays combines personal biography with ethnographic insights to forge a feminist analysis of the complex relationship of race, class, and gender in the lives of Black women. Black Feminist Anthropology is an essential text for those who want to read cutting edge anthropological theory. Louise Lamphere, distinguished professor of anthropology, University of New Mexico, and director of the Alfonso Ortiz

I read Black Feminist Anthropology in Adwa, Ethiopia where rural women participated in the revolution against their oppressors. This seminal work demonstrates why empowerment, then and now, must include storytelling.  Being all Black and Feminist anthropologists, these authors tell stories beyond the boundaries of the White academic canons and traditions and the male gaze to enrich the legacy of knowing and as actors for change. This classic must be read by all practicing anthropologists in the 21st century. Kesho Scott, author of The Habit of Surviving and co-author of Tight Spaces

As a graduate student, it has been a balancing act of learning to reconcile the fraught nature of the discipline of anthropology with my dreams of becoming a Black Feminist anthropologist who works to unsettle the Black experience in a time of increasing ecological precarity. This collection is a source of wisdom, healing, and empowerment. Yveline C. Saint Louis, PhD student in sociocultural anthropology, University of Washington

Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis and Poetics is a pathbreaking and landmark contribution to the field of anthropology paving the way for new methodological and theoretical directions. The book is an essential text for examining the significance of Black women’s impact in fields far and wide including dance studies, performance studies, masculinity studies, and queer theory. Mark Broomfield, associate professor of English, SUNY Geneseo

Irma McClaurin is an impressive scholar and advocate for justice. I am deeply grateful for her insights into racial justice in the academy, and into structural racism and sexism more generally. Her work is essential to anyone concerned with re-establishing trust in and between our educational, social, and governmental institutions. Anne F. Harris, president, Grinnell College

Even before recent groundbreaking interventions disrupted mainstream anthropology’s white, masculinist narratives, like the 'Cite Black Women' movement, there was Black Feminist Anthropology. This trailblazing collection remains more relevant than ever today as we work to decolonize our thinking, acknowledging long-buried truths about anthropology’s complex racialized and gendered histories and legacies. Susan B. Hyatt, professor emerita of Anthropology, Indiana University, Indianapolis

In the beginning of Black Feminist Anthropology, Irma McClaurin calls the book an 'intervention,' and for the last 25 years, it has been the bedrock for many interventions into the study of Black life, Black women's lives, and Black diasporic studies. While this book has launched and given support to the work of many, I had the honor of bringing it into my classroom and creating a course with the same name: Black Feminist Anthropology. Dr. Irma McClaurin was a guest lecturer in this interventionist course, and since then, students have told me how important the course was to them in strengthening their sense of self in the academy. This class and the pedagogy I designed to support it were built on top of the foundational house established by Irma McClaurin with the development and publication of 'Black Feminist Anthropology,' three words that have built and continue to sustain a decolonized anthropology that centers Black women's knowledge production in theory, politics, praxis, and poetics. Riché J. Daniel Barnes, author of Raising the Race: Black Career Women Redefine Marriage, Motherhood, and Community (Rutgers