Gender Studies 333SE - Advanced Seminar: 'Black Sexual Economies'

Black Sexual Economies

Spring
2026
01
4.00
Sarah Stefana Smith

TH 01:30PM-04:20PM

Mount Holyoke College
129882
sarahstefanasmith@mtholyoke.edu
At once viewed as a dysfunction of normative ideas about sexuality, the family, and the nation, Black sexualities are intimately linked to and regulated by political and socioeconomic discourses. Slavery studies scholars remind us of how it has proven foundational for modern notions of race and sex by making explicit links between labor and exploitation. Thus, this course moves through themes such as slavery historicity, intersections between Black feminisms and Black sexualities, sexual labor/work, pleasure, and the erotic, in order to consider the stakes of our current critical approaches to Black sexual economies and interrogate its silences and possibilities.

This course is open to juniors and seniors

Sophomores may reach out to the instructor for permission to take the course.

Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.