Black Feminism Initiative

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 Workshop, and public talks and symposia.




Current Projects




Alisa Bierria and Mariame Kaba Graduate Research Fellowships

The Black Feminism Initiative sponsors two graduate fellowships to support current research in Black feminism: The Alisa Bierria Graduate Fellowship in Black Feminist Research and the Mariame Kaba Graduate Fellowship in Black Feminist Research. Each $1,000 fellowship supports graduate research, conference travel, or the acquisition of necessary materials for in-progress dissertation or thesis projects. Current UCLA MA and PhD students are eligible to apply.

The 2019-2020 application cycle has passed.



The Faculty-Graduate Workshop in Black Feminism

This workshop meets each quarter for conversations in Black feminism that provide the opportunity for graduate students and faculty to workshop in-progress writing and ideas.

The Faculty-Graduate Workshop Coordinating Committee includes: Jaimie Crumley, Zama Dube, Ariel Stevenson, Rosie Stockton, Kali Tambreé.



The Black Feminism Initiative Public Program

The Black Feminism Initiative Public Program sponsors public talks and events on subjects of pressing political and social concern.

For information about BFI public events please sign up for the CSW mailing list.

The Black Feminism Initiative will host Charlene Carruthers, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Zoé Samudzi, C. Riley Snorton, and Terrion Williamson for workshops and public events in our series, Conversations in Black Feminist Practice, during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Conversations in Black Feminist Practice: Black Queer Radicalisms with Charlene Carruthers and C. Riley Snorton

Charlene Carruthers is a political strategist, cultural worker, and PhD student in the Department of African American Studies at Northwestern University. A practitioner of telling more complete stories, her research includes Black feminist political economies, abolition of patriarchal and carceral systems, and the role of cultural work within the Black Radical Tradition.

C. Riley Snorton, Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago, is jointly appointed in the department and the Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Snorton is a cultural theorist who focuses on racial, sexual and transgender histories and cultural productions.

Date: Friday, May 7, 2021
Time: 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
Location: Online
Event Details / Event Recording



For questions regarding the Black Feminism Initiative and BFI Graduate Fellowships, please contact the BFI Director, Sarah Haley, at shaley@ucla.edu.