BFSA Faculty Talks

Presenter: Dr. Lisa Ze Winters, Associate Professor, African American Studies and English
Associate Chair, English Department

Session Title: Black mothers and daughters, and the possibilities of freedom

Description: My current research project examines Black writers’ representations of enslaved Black mother’s efforts to enact freedom for their daughters.  As a Black mother raising a Black daughter in this precarious and dangerous contemporary time, this research is personal for me. In this workshop, I’ll offer a brief presentation to discuss examples of how literary enslaved Black mothers have imagined freedom for their daughters and talk about the historical record of how enslaved mothers fought to secure their children’s freedom. From that, I’ll facilitate a discussion of how we understand freedom and what it can look like for Black girls today.