Africana Studies Commons^™

A Meditation On Afrosurrealism, Black Gender, And The Non-Human, Logan K. Shanks

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Quotidian Black life is characterized by our ability to alchemize violence into generative life-sustaining properties of matter. In this paper, I will measure Black matter based on anything produced and engaged by Black collectives. While Black existence is not tied to white violence, descendants of enslaved Black people enter our worlds of worlds greeted by a white captor. It is not until we consciously recognize that we are in his dream that we can work to escape the white captor’s circadian rhythms. Through this paper, I will tease out the contradictions of our Black living-unliving. I will employ an anti-methodological …

Introduction: Toward An Ethical Mutilation Of The "Human" And "Body", José E. Valdivia Heredia , '23

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Development Of Southern Interracial Marriage And Divorce: Why Our Children Are Code-Switching, Zoe R. Grant

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

The fundamental basis of my final paper will be of my own lived experience. In my paper, I will argue that as a result of an interracial divorce, mixed-race children are learning to code-switch leading to a greater sense of empathy and community. I will pull from the theoretical framework of Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza” as well as other sources to support my claims.

By focusing heavily on a southern perspective, I will question whether or not a history of southern interracial marriage causes a strain on nuclear families. Are interracial children having new experiences, and …

Mommy, Me, And We: Why Black Mothers Have Turned To Doulas, Janessa Harris

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Maternal mortality mates have disproportionately affected black mothers for far too long due to the lack of value that black bodies hold in medical spaces. Because of this concerns voiced by black people are often disregarded and ignored until the very last minute. But what if this was changed? This paper will focus on how black mothers have worked against Western medical systems that silence our voices, but instead turn to doulas who work to make these mothers feel seen, heard, and cared for. Through this, we make birthing a careful and collective effort to turn Mommy&Me to Mommy&We.

Àṣẹ After Man: The Rupture Of The Christian-Colonial Project As Decolonial Ceremony, Eden Segbefia

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

This project is a theoretical exploration of the Yoruba concept of àṣẹ and its role in unsettling the hierarchies imposed by Christian colonialism. Sylvia Wynter's explanation of the ways in which Christian colonialism has affected the very concept of Man proves crucial here. Àṣẹ is an example of a decolonial concept because of its ability to rearrange animacy, especially as it is conceived in Western European epistemology. Wynter and other interlocutors are utilized to support this argument and imagine new possibilities in considering the relationships between Christian colonialism, alterity, plasticity, and animacy.

Sitting Here With You In The Future: Reimagining The Human Through Digital Art, Jared Z. Sloan

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

This paper presents a novel construction of the Human that arises from digital art. Taking an interdisciplinary approach incorporating perspectives from queer theory, afropessimism, science and technology studies, and more, I analyze the works of three digital artists: Lucas LaRochelle, Arafa Hamadi, and Natalie Paneng. I chart the ways in which these artists negotiate borders between the physical and digital, human and non-human, and real and fantastical to challenge hegemonic Western ideas about humanity and the individual. I claim that by restricting the information available to the user in various ways, the picture of the Human that emerges from each …

“The Work We Came Here To Do”: Crossings, An Introduction, José E. Valdivia Heredia , '23

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

No abstract provided.