Black body being-in-weirdness in the academy
pp. 195-198
in: Sarah Travis, Amelia M. Kraehe, Emily J. Hood, Tyson E. Lewis (eds), Pedagogies in the flesh, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
This chapter describes a 'fleshpoint' of a moment one Black female PhD student (Keitha-Gail) experienced living-in-weirdness in a doctoral seminar. The chapter captures what happens when the racialized body is expected to operate in an all-white space in the academy. To philosophize this bodily phenomenon, the authors draw on the work of Frantz Fanon and Sara Ahmed to tell a story of the Black body being distanced from itself under the White gaze. The Black body has the capacity to discern when it is being historized. The Black body carries with it legends, stories, and myths of its ancestors. The knowledge that is stored in the Black body is active; it operates in the subconscious and can be felt in the flesh.