Makings of the Body: The Role of Ontologies and Feminism in the Making of the Civic Body

Abstract

In this thesis my intention is to theorize the black female body in and around a black feminist tradition. I am specifically interested in tracing how black feminism has theorized the black female body. While my discussion oscillates between both black lives and black bodies, the bodies of black women are the text –– that is, the object under study. My thesis contributes to the field an examination into how the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM) is being played out through black female bodies. This logic of this argument accepts that BLM follows a fundamentally black feminist tradition, and thus, has aims rooted in the same advocacy work that provided the foundation for the development of what we know contemporarily as Black feminism. This thesis considers, in great detail, the erasure of black existence through the lives of unarmed black women. The three bodies under review in this thesis are Renisha McBride, Shereese Francis, and Malissa Williams. While there are many women of color who have died at the hands of the state, the lives of these specific