Rachel Harding – Mysticism and Mothering in Black Women's Social Justice Activism: Brazil/USA

Wednesday, March 16, 2016
12 p.m.
Joukowksky Forum

This presentation examines the interstices of mysticism, mothering/hospitality and community organizing in the lives of women of African descent in Brazil and the United States – a confluence about which there is little extant scholarship. Using an analytical framework that incorporates history of religions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora, ethnographic and historical studies of contemporary social justice movements, oral histories, and womanist ethics, my work explores the moral and mystic universe of contemporary Afro-Brazilian and African American women activists.

A collaboration between Africana Studies and the Brazil Initiative, with the generous co-sponsorship of the Watson Institute, the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, the Center for Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, and Religious Studies.