Centre for the Study of Women and Gender Events

You are warmly invited to join us for a face to face seminar on

Ambiguities in Black: Black feminism and the transracialism discourse

featuring Dr Alanah Mortlock (King's College London)

Abstract:

When Rachel Dolezal was “outed” as white during a local news television interview in 2015, a new social category exploded into popular cultural and academic discourses: transracial. This story – the scandalous demise of an NAACP Chapter President who identifies as Black whilst having been born to and raised by Caucasian parents – captured the public and scholarly imagination and precipitated a flurry of media and academic engagement with questions of identity fluidity and Black authenticity. Much of this work sets out to argue that Rachel Dolezal either is or is not Black, a debate that has often evolved into a broader consideration of whether it is possible to become Black. My research project, Ambiguities in Black, thus argues that the discourse about “transracialism” is best understood as a struggle over our popular and scholarly definitions of Blackness. Responding to this struggle, I ask: what does this discourse that emerged in the wake of the Rachel Dolezal transracialism scandal do to ways of talking and thinking about Blackness?

This question of what Blackness is and how we might know whether someone is Black is long contested and of vital importance to critical race theorists and scholars of Blackness, as well as anti-racist political actors. By analysing the post-Dolezalian transracialism discourse, my project produces answers as to the assumptions and logics about racialisation and Black identities circulating and structuring this popular media and academic discussion, and the ways in which the discourse can be seen to complicate, alleviate, or exaggerate rising tensions in our cultural, political, and theoretical dialogue on racial identity.

Speaker Bio:

Alanah Mortlock is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London. Her current project seeks to put histories of Black British feminism in conversation with contemporary African-American Black Studies, and in particular the discourse of Black metaphysics. Her doctoral research, completed at the LSE Department of Gender Studies, analysed how academic and popular discourses of “transracialism” interact with theorisations of Blackness, engaging a critical lens invested in Black feminist and trans scholarship and politics. Her research interests include Black (and) trans feminisms; theorisations of Blackness; racial liminality; theories and critiques of identity; Black anti-humanism; and feminist epistemologies and methodologies.

This event is free and open to all, but advance registration is required.

To register for a place, CLICK HERE.

Refreshments will not be provided, but you are very welcome to bring your lunch and eat it during the seminar.

If you have any questions about the event, please email cswg-events@warwick.ac.uk

If you have accessibility requirements or there are any adjustments we can make to support your full participation, you can let us know through the booking page above.

This event is being organised by the Black Feminist Thought Group and the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender