COLLINS
We’ll put Patricia Hill Collins (Distinguished University Professor of Sociology, Emerita at University of Maryland) in conversation with Cooper. You should start by reading Elizabeth Higginbotham’s profile of Collins.
RETHINKING DOMINATION AND CONSCIOUSNESS
Collins. 2000. Black Feminist Thought. (pp. vi-ix, 4-17, 22-5, 41-3, 45-67, 69-96, 99-102, 227-32, 273-90)[1]
Collins. 2019. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. (pp. 1-5, 45-53, 87-9, 116-20, 286-90)
Collins pushes us to rethink the relations of oppression and resistance and argues that we cannot adequately do so without simultaneously rethinking what constitutes knowledge. In Black Feminist Thought, she centers Black women’s ideas to study a matrix of domination, that being a complex ordering of intersecting oppressions (along axes of race, gender, class, and so on). Collins argues that Black women’s status as multiply oppressed, objectified, and othered provides them with special insights into the mechanics and effects of the interdependent systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and more. Their resistance efforts also help us see processes of domination from new vantage points. That said, we cannot hope to understand Black women’s consciousness without also adequately situating their experiences within a matrix of domination. This necessitates, among other things, a consideration of their historically varied positionings in economy, polity, and civil society. It also requires a consideration of ideology and culture, which further suppress Black women’s knowledge. Throughout her analysis, Collins is clear that an examination of Black feminist thought has implications for other cases of domination and subjugated knowledge. However, it is in Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory where she more explicitly considers the general significance of resistant knowledge projects. This book also makes that argument that intersectionality is not yet a critical social theory, but is on track to become one.
COLLINS AND COOPER
Read the "Cooper Excerpts for Collins" in the Excerpt Packet.
Collins is an ideal theorist to end our readings with. It’s not hard to put her in conversation with any of our previous theorists. She calls out several intellectual traditions (e.g., Marxism, feminism, and “traditional social theory”) and she even engages a few of our theorists by name (e.g., Gramsci, Fanon, Davis, Wilson, and Foucault). Collins also returns us to many of the topics and concerns we encountered in our first seminar. However, we’ll put her in explicit conversation with Cooper. Unlike Davis, Collins engages Cooper directly. She notes, for example, how Cooper’s writings capture a common theme in Black feminist thought: the solidarity of humanity. Collins also makes room for reformist strategies that may be consistent with Cooper’s endorsement of Americanism. Still, there are some unanswered questions. What might Cooper say about controlling images? What might she say about the outsider-within? Also, can (or should) Collins apply her critique of the “cult of true womanhood” to Cooper’s analysis of gender? Finally, in what ways do Collins and Cooper conceptualize distinct politics of empowerment?
[1] Page numbers correspond to the second edition of Black Feminist Thought (2000). The first edition was published in 1990, but Collins made a number of substantive changes to the version we’re reading. Later editions may work. We’re reading the following: Preface to the First Edition, “The Suppression of Black Feminist Thought” (Chapter 1), “Why U.S. Black Feminist Thought?” (Chapter 2), “U.S. Black Feminism and Other Social Justice Projects” (Chapter 2), Chapter 3, Chapter 4, “Finding a Voice: Coming to Terms with Contradictions” (Chapter 5), untitled introduction (Chapter 10), “Nation and Nationalism” (Chapter 10), and Chapter 12.