This graduate seminar surveys the foundational texts as well as recent monographs in the field of black women’s history and inquires what the field has offered us epistemologically, methodologically, and theoretically over the past 40 years. The course will chart the approaches, sources, themes, and debates that have been critical to the formation and expansion of the field. Although the course focuses on African American women’s history, we will also explore scholarship across the African Diaspora as well as interdisciplinary approaches to black women’s history. Prominent themes will include political activism, community building, black feminism, work, pleasure, the archive, reproduction, and family.