Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

English (Ph.D.)

Department

English

First Advisor

Dohra Ahmad

Second Advisor

Raj Chetty

Third Advisor

Robert Fanuzzi

Abstract

My dissertation study explores how the Black Diasporic Feminist Praxis (BDFP) serves as a methodology for theorizing, critiquing, and teaching literature by women writers of the Black Diaspora. In order to position the BDFP, I theorize ‘Blackness’ and ‘Indigeneity’ as modes of identity formation and the Black Diaspora (BD) as a fluid, inclusive racialized geographical space. Black Diasporic Feminism (BDF) is an epistemology that validates Black and Black Indigenous identity and life experiences across geography, race, gender, and class. I use the BDFP to examine how Black women writers from England, Australia, Canada, and the United States create a ‘Collage Form’ within their writings through mapping migration movements across the Black Diaspora, integrating sociopolitical and cultural epistemologies, and engaging experimental writing strategies. Through examining the range of poetry, drama, fiction, and life story genres employed by Black Diasporic Feminist writers, I attempt to ‘inscribe’ the plurality of epistemologies, migration movements, ancestral histories, modes of identity formations, cultural aesthetics, and lived/living experiences, integral to Black Diasporic life. I also use the BDFP to make critical interventions in English Studies scholarship and instructional practices. The BDFP raises questions on representation and coverage in literary and pedagogical scholarship and employing reform initiatives for fostering equity, inclusion, and diversity in the instruction of literature produced by Afro-Caribbean-British, African American, Australian Aboriginal, and Afro-Canadian women authors. I provide curricular and pedagogical strategies for effectively teaching literature by Black Diasporic Feminist writers and advocating for its inclusion in English Studies. In the accompanied appendixes, I provide sample course curriculum units and a recommended reading list.

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