Black Girl Banned: Representations of Rebellion and Radical Black Girlhood

Call for Papers for Edited Collection

Abstracts Due March 30, 2021

Full Drafts Due December 1, 2021

Subject Fields: African American History / Studies, Humanities, Literature, Women’s & Gender History / Studies

We invite proposals for chapters ranging from 7,000-8000 words. Please submit a 500 word abstract and brief bio to Ebony Perro and Regina A. Bernard-Carreño at
blackgirlbanned@gmail.com by March 30th, 2021. Notification of acceptance will occur by May 1, 2021. Full drafts are due by December 1, 2021.

From Alice Walker’s womanism to bell hooks’ oppositional gaze, Black girls’ rebellion inspires concepts and theoretical approaches that aid in understanding the lives of Black girls and women. These theorizations–and Black girls’ actions–counter dominant narratives and distortions of Black girlhood. Despite censoring, surveilling, and policing, Black girls find creative ways to assert and insert themselves in spaces where their behavior may be considered “deviant,” “rebellious,” or “womanish.” They often engage in what Aimee Meredith Cox calls shapeshifting to “confront, challenge, invert, unsettle, and expose the material impact of systemic oppression” (7). While we witness shapeshifting in the material world, Black women creatives also reveal resistance strategies that arise out of Black girlhood. This collection examines representations of Black girl resistance in creative works. We invite examinations of cultural productions (e.g., novels, poetry, plays, films, music, and short stories). We seek chapters that discuss the ways Black women writers present (counter) narratives of girlhood to demonstrate the myriad possibilities of Black girl rebellion. Though we are open to explorations of texts across genres, mediums, and epochs, we are particularly interested in work from the 20th and 21st centuries. We welcome a broad range of essays that engage Black girl resistance efforts politically, socially, and (cross) culturally. As we seek to represent Black girl resistance across the African diaspora, we invite chapters exploring Black girlhood in and beyond the U.S. Through this collection, we intend to contribute to the fields of Black Girlhood Studies and Literary Studies with chapters centering stories told about, through, and to Black girls. The collection explores the following questions: How do Black women writers present radical Black girls? What ways do Black girl characters resist? What are the results of this resistance? Topics include but are not limited to:

• Black girls’ trangressions/deviant behavior in literature and/or film
• Black girl activists in literature or film
• Narratives by Black girls
• Literary representations of rebellious or radicals acts
• Depictions of feminist and womanist girls
• Banned/controversial texts by Black women

We invite proposals for chapters ranging from 7,000-8000 words. Please submit a 500 word abstract and brief bio to Ebony Perro and Regina A. Bernard-Carreño at
blackgirlbanned@gmail.com by March 30th, 2021. Notification of acceptance will occur by May 1, 2021. Full drafts are due by December 1, 2021.