Otherwise Futures Reimagined: Afrofuturism as Liberation for Black Women~A Black Speculative Fiction
Term of Award
Spring 2024
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (restricted to Georgia Southern)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
Ming Fang He
Committee Member 1
Sabrina Ross
Committee Member 2
Peggy Shannon-Baker
Committee Member 3
Stephanie Renee Toliver
Committee Member 3 Email
stoliver@illinois.edu
Abstract
Black women in the United States emerge into adulthood with few historical representations that mirror ourselves. In this work, I examine how historical recovery supports Black women in developing wholeness. I draw upon the theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist (Hull, Scott, & Smith, 1982; Lorde, 1984; Guy-Sheftall, 1995; Collins, 2000), Endarkened Feminist Epistemology (e.g., Dillard, 2006, 2012), and Afrofuturism (e.g., Eshun, 2003; Womack, 2014) to guide my inquiry. I apply Black speculative fiction as methodology (e.g., Bell, 1992; Butler, 1980; Allen & Cherelle, 2018; Toliver, 2022) and in practice, I argue for alternative methods of inquiry. Nine renderings emerged from my inquiry: (1) As Black women create, and participate in healing curricula for Black girls/women, they should ask the following questions: What is worth knowing? What is worth imagining? What is the purpose of knowing? (2) It is important to invent spiritual curriculum milieu for Black women to thrive in being and aliveness as they fight against all forms of racism, sexism, ableism, and heteronormativity. (3) An intersectionality of Black Feminist Thought, Endarked Feminism, and Afrofuturism empowers Black women as they engage in recovery, reconciliation, and revival. (4) Black women illustrate a capability of cultivating spiritual homeplaces/spaces within ourselves so that we can continuously draw upon a source of self-actualization and self-invigoration for healing and caring. (5) Black woman’s self-definition, healing, and agency cannot be defined by humanization of Black women alone; rather, by their personal divination. (6) Black Women’s Resilience Narratives perpetuate stereotypes and diminish the importance of Black women’s struggles for their identities, healings, and agencies. (7) Black women must engage in internal and external deliberations that examine futurities through multiple Black intellectual traditions. (8) Curriculum Studies must continue to evolve to foster creative insubordination strategies that transgress traditional theoretical traditions and methodological boundaries as a social justice project to empower silenced, marginalized, and neglected individuals, groups, and communities. (9) To cultivate our thriving wholeness and emancipatory sisterhoods, Black women must examine our own ignorance, heal the soul of our Black womanhood, and create possibilities to reimagine spaces and places for our infinite futurities.
Recommended Citation
Cooper, K. S. (2024). Otherwise futures reimagined: afrofuturism as liberation for Black women~a Black speculative fiction. Statesboro: Georgia Southern University.
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
