2024/02/22 by Rachel Falkenstern · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes #Race, History, and American Society #Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment
paper · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197558898.013.19
openalex publication_date 2024/02/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Anna Julia Cooper (1858/9–1964) was an intellectual powerhouse, dedicated educator, and tireless activist, best known for her Black feminism. Her written output on topics ranging from feminist theory to literary criticism to the intertwined politics of the Haitian and French Revolutions spanned her entire adult life, most famously, in her 1892 collection A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South. This chapter focuses on philosophical concepts found in Cooper’s work, especially as they are treated in contemporary philosophy and related fields. It puts recent English-language academic philosophy about Cooper into conversation with Cooper's research in adjacent fields such as women’s studies and African American studies. The topics treated are: education, classicism, activism; moral critiques of social-political power, progress, and oppression; ethics and epistemology, pragmatism and American philosophy; and a few words on existentialism and aesthetics as concluding remarks.