Ithaca College

Dissertation Diversity Fellow Kayla Wheeler will be offering a special course for the Fall 2016 semester titled Black Lives Matter: Religion and Justice (RLST 27501-01). The course will be on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00PM - 5:15PM.

Course description

Whereas history has attributed the success of the Civil Rights Movement to heterosexual Black men grounded in the Black Church, the Movement for Black Lives is led by "unchurched" queer and trans Black women who reject the claim that tackling sexism should be a secondary issue for activists. Radically inclusive, these activists trace their lineage back to Assata Shakur, Ella Baker, and Ida B. Wells rather than Martin Luther King and even Malcolm X. Black women in the Movement for Black Lives are focused on recovering the forgotten history of earlier Black women activists and centering women, girls, and femmes in conversations on state violence.

This push has shifted conversations about the role religion will play in this new
movement. Focusing on Christians, Muslims, and "religious nones" (atheists, agnostics, and
unaffiliated people), this course will explore how people in the Movement for Black Lives have used religion in their activism, and how the movement has, in turn, also shaped religion.

Course Objectives

• Enhance critical thinking, analytical writing, and research skills.
• Gain basic knowledge of Black feminist/womanist theories and concepts.
• Gain greater understanding of state sanctioned anti-Black violence

Seats are available.

*** ICC Designations for Diversity, Power & Justice, and Identities are pending. ***

Please visit https://www.ithaca.edu/hs/depts/philrel/docs/BLMsyllabus/ to take a look at the course syllabus.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Christine Haase at haase@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-1378. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.