Ula Taylor, “The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam”

Organized by the UC Consortium for Black Studies in California
Ula Taylor will speak about her new book, The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam (UNC Press, 2017). Taylor will discuss the significance of women’s politics within the Nation of Islam (NOI), one of the most significant African American religious and political organizations of the twentieth century.  She analyzes the complexities of members’ gender consciousness and women’s political activities within the NOI, which promised protection and empowerment under the guise of patriarchy.  The first major study of women in the NOI, Taylor’s extraordinary research departs from a tendency toward celebration within feminist movement histories. Instead, she excavates the deep role of masculinity within the NOI and women’s struggles to confront the devaluation of black womanhood while navigating the entanglements of patriarchal black nationalism.  This highly original approach avoids reductionist interpretations that position women as inevitable feminist actors and her scrupulous research raises original questions about the operation of gender within the civil rights and black power eras.
Ula Taylor is a leading feminist historian. She is Professor and H. Michael and Jeanne Williams Department Chair in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
DATE: April 30, 2018
TIME: 4:00 PM
LOCATION: TBD