Description: Contemporary research on the lives and experiences of women of color tends to neglect the influence of women's perceived access to voice as they manage tensions related to race, class, and gender. Underserved Women of Color, Voice, and Resistance: Claiming a Seat at the Table contributes to current dialogues that construct Black Feminist Theory as active, critical engagement within dominant American institutions that oppress women of color in their daily lives. Women of color face unique social challenges that exist at the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. While some challenges are common to women of color, others reflect the distinct journey each woman makes as she negotiates her identity within her family, professional circle, social and romantic relationships, and community. The editors have constructed a rich collection of voices in this work exploring the politics of women of color across various social contexts.
Brief description: Dr. Reynaldo Anderson currently serves as the Graduate Director and Associate Professor of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Reynaldo is currently the Executive Director and co-founder of the Black Speculative Arts Movement (BSAM), an international network of artists, intellectuals, creatives, and activists. He is the co-editor of the following anthologies and journals, Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness and The Black Speculative Arts Movement: Black Futurity, Art+Design (2015, 2019), Cosmic Underground: A Grimoire of Black Speculative Discontent (2018), Black Lives, Black Politics, Black Futures, a special issue of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (2018), and "When is Wakanda: Afrofuturism and Dark Speculative Futurity" (The Journal of Futures Studies, 2019). He is also the author of numerous articles on Africana Studies and Communication studies and helped conceive the joint BSAM and NY LIVE Arts Curating the End of the World online exhibitions (2020-2021). He has presented papers in areas of communications, Africana studies, Afrofuturism, and critical theory in the US and abroad.
Review Quotes:
"This compelling collection lifts the voices of diverse feminist/womanist scholars who ardently articulate complexities of identity politics across a rich range of contemporary contexts." --Brenda J. Allen, University of Colorado at Denver
"Iconic feminist Anna Julia Cooper's impassioned plea for women to muster the creativity and ingenuity needed to successfully cultivate a collective literary and rhetorical voice of resistance and reason has come deftly home to roost in this illuminating scholarly work, Underserved Women of Color, Voice, and Resistance: Claiming a Seat at the Table. This is a masterful deconstruction of the posturing, privileged power positions routinely portioned out to everyone except women of color. Bold, brash, brilliant!" --Elizabeth F. Desnoyers-Colas, Armstrong Atlantic State University