The Black Feminism Initiative (BFI) was established in fall 2019 to honor and encourage Black feminist thought and visions for political transformation. BFI supports interdisciplinary research and social engagements that are grounded in Black feminist and Black queer frameworks of analysis, challenges state and interpersonal violence, considers intramural forms of relation, and engages everyday forms of refusal, Black feminist assembly, and collective organizing practice.

BFI also highlights questions of social reproduction and reproductive justice, contemporary and historical regimes of captivity and carcerality, and Black feminist art and expressive culture. BFI supports graduate research, a faculty-graduate workshop, and public programming.

Current projects include: the Alisa Bierria and Mariame Kaba Graduate Research Fellowships, the Black Feminist Faculty-Graduate Working Group, and the Black Feminist Initiative Faculty Collective.