Jennifer Leath

Quareing Ma’at: Theories of Justice & Black Sexual Ethics

June 16, 2021 | 11 am – 12 pm 

Abstract: How does reading Black sexual ethics and theories of justice as inseparable threads in the lives of Afrodiasporic people from a quare-womanist-vindicationist ethical perspective transform these threads, liberating Black sexuality and justice alike? “Quareing Ma’at” offers preliminary answers to this question, engaging the work of E. Patrick Johnson along with others who press beyond the racial limitations of queer theory, Keri Day along with other womanists theorizing justice, and Maulana Karenga along with other vindicationists interested in Ma’at as the heart of Ancient Egyptian moral codes and their value to contemporary Afrodiasporic communities and religion. This lecture invites learners to an alternative point of origin in studies of Black Religions – and gestures toward the liberative possibilities of this alternative approach.