ways black women in the US Communist Party (CPUSA) of the Old Left period (1919-1956) forged a ground-breaking radical black feminist praxis that challenged orthodox Marxist framings of capitalism through centering race and gender to their political thought and activism. Given that women of color remain at the bottom of contemporary global social hierarchies, the experiences of Old Left black women radicals provide important lessons for diagnosing current social injustices and for reimagining and building new societies locally and globally. Event co-sponsored by the Social Justice Institute.
About the speaker
Erik McDuffie
Erik S. McDuffie is an Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research and teaching interests include African diaspora history, black feminism, black queer theory, black radicalism, black urban history, and black masculinity. He is the author of the book, Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011). The book received the 2012 Wesley-Logan Prize from the American Historical Association-Association for the Study of African American Life and History, as well as the 2011 Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize from the Association of Black Women Historians. He is also the author of several scholarly articles and essays published in Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society; Journal of African American History; African Identities; African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal; Radical History Review; American Communist History; Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International; among other journals and edited volumes.
Additional Resources
Professor McDuffie’s faculty page
Interview with Professor McDuffie
Information on McDuffie’s book
Cosponsored with:
CWRU Social Justice Institute