The Renaissance

CUFA 2024 Program Chairs

The word renaissance literally means “rebirth,” and is used to describe periods of heightened intellectual and creative achievement that push a society from one set of values and expectations to another (Smith, 1998). As Black women and Beyoncé fans, we are interested in learning more about how the songs, ideas, and aesthetics that shape our civic identities are understood and used in classrooms, research, and social movements. We are indebted to ancestor and renaissance woman Elizabeth Freeman, who sued and won her freedom in a Massachusetts court in 1781. We see renaissance catalysts in Black women’s clubs and activist organizations including Boston’s League of Women for Community Service founded in 1920 and the Combahee River Collective founded in 1974. We celebrate the anthems of Boston native and late disco legend, renaissance woman Donna Summer (1948 - 2012). Our use of renaissance is further inspired by our conceptual godmothers: Gloria Ladson-Billings (2003) and her call to pry open silences in the social studies, Joyce King’s (2011) and Cynthia Dillard’s (2012) respective calls to critical (re)membering, and Patricia Hill-Collins (2000) and her insistence on dignified self-definition. 

Contact us cufa2024conference@gmail.com