The Roots of Womanism as Identity, Empowerment, and Liberation for Black American Women: Raciolinguistic Genealogical Exploration

<p>Black American women intellectuals, activists, and scholars have grappled with womanism in relation to Black women’s presence in the world, particularly in the context of feminist and Black liberation movements. Since womanism was introduced more than four decades ago, both movements claimed Black women were a priority in theory and rhetoric but often excluded them in practice. For this reason, this dissertation examines womanist thought as a source of identity, empowerment, and liberation for Black American women. I employed two methods to investigate womanist thought that align with a qualitative inquiry: genealogy focus and raciolinguistic genealogy analysis. I conducted a content analysis of womanist thought, focusing on Alice Walker, Katie Cannon, and Clenora Hudson-Weems. Walker popularized womanism. Cannon is one of the earliest and most prolific writers on womanist theology. Hudson-Weems, coined the term Africana womanism. After this analysis, I used raciolinguistic genealogy to analyze individual interview data from eight contemporary student-scholars. In exploring womanist thought as a language-based tool that Black American women can and do draw upon and utilize for liberation, empowerment, and identity formation, I argue that womanist thought is under-articulated within the U.S. higher education system. This under-articulation is due to systemic norms that serve to maintain colonized and anti-Black language perspectives, actions, and behaviors. These norms lead scholars to implicitly or explicitly reject womanist thought as a credible representation of Black womanhood and agency. Based on the findings from this study, I invite Black women who utilize feminist and Black feminist thought to reconsider the power of womanist thought as a form of resistance. It’s less about the word and more about what womanism signifies.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Cultural Studies, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Arts and Humanities

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Morgan, Shante Noel Millercent

Contributors dc:contributor

• Eve Oishi
• Linda Perkins

• Africana studies
• Black studies
• Communication
• Cultural studies
• Gender and women studies
• Linguistics
• African American Studies
• Women's Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1058

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-2080