Va-Hist:

I am happy to post this announcement from the Virginia Foundation for
the Humanities:


Please join VFH Fellow Katharine L. Balfour on Tuesday, April 12, from 4
until 5:30 p.m. for her seminar Representative Women: Slavery, Gender,
and Citizenship in W.E.B. Du Bois's "Damnation of Women."  Balfour,
Assistant Professor of Politics, University of Virginia, will present
her seminar in the downstairs conference room at the Virginia Foundation
for the Humanities (VFH).

April 12
Representative Women:
Slavery, Gender, and Citizenship in W.E.B. Du Bois's "Damnation of
Women"
VFH Fellow Katharine L. Balfour
University of Virginia, Political Science Virginia Foundation for the
Humanities 4 - 5:30 p.m.


Notoriously, W.E.B. Du Bois's 1920 essay on "The Damnation of Women"
quotes Anna Julia Cooper's proclamation that "only the Black Woman can
say 'when and where I enter,...then and there the whole Negro race
enters with me'" 
but fails to name Cooper as its source. Du Bois's double move,
simultaneously giving voice to and silencing black women, has received
critical attention from feminist scholars interested in his treatment of
women as intellectuals and leaders. Balfour's presentation builds from
that research, shifting the focus to the question of how gender and,
more specifically, the experiences of African American women figure into
Du Bois's conception of democratic citizenship. Balfour's examination of
"Damnation" reveals a line of argument that takes Cooper's claim
literally, explicitly locating black women at the center of American
democracy. 
Balfour asserts that for Du Bois, slavery is the crucible out of which
American democracy will be forged; and it is slave women who bore the
brunt of slavery and in whose daughters Du Bois discerns the "up-working
of new revolutionary ideals." To be sure, Du Bois's writing is rife with
tensions, including the tension between his admiration for the
resistance of enslaved and poor women and his praise of the delicacy and
beauty of "a finer type of black woman" and between the radicalism of
his conception of freedom and the ideal of "uplift" with which it is
often paired. Balfour's aim is not to minimize these points of conflict.
Instead, by teasing out the radically feminist strain in Du Bois's
writing, Balfour contends that contemporary feminist theories of
citizenship must go beyond acknowledging the importance of race and
grapple explicitly with the legacies of slavery.

VFH Fellows seminars are held at the Virginia Foundation for the
Humanities, 145 Ednam Drive, Charlottesville, Virginia. All
presentations begin at 4 p.m. and are followed by refreshments and an
informal time for discussion and questions.

Directions to the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities: From the
North, South, and East: take I-64 or Route 29 to 250 West. Take 250 West
to the Boar's Head Inn. Turn left at the Boar's Head Inn sign. Make your
first left, before the Inn. Come to the top of the small hill. The VFH
is on the left. From the West: Take I-64 East to 29 North. Take 250
West. Follow directions above.

Please contact me if you need additional information.

Ann White Spencer
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
Phone: 434 243 5526
Fax: 434 296 4714
145 Ednam Drive
Charlottesville, VA 22903

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html