Reshaping the Ear: Honorable Listening and Study of Ecowomanist and Ecofeminist Scholarship for Feminist Discourse

Citation:

Harris, Melanie L. 2017. “Reshaping the Ear: Honorable Listening and Study of Ecowomanist and Ecofeminist Scholarship for Feminist Discourse.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 33 (2): 158–62.

Author: Melanie L. Harris

Abstract:

Harris utlilizes an ecowomanist approach to tackle the issue of climate change and its impact on women. Ecowomanism is an approach that centers the voices, theoretical, religious, and ecospiritual activism of women of African descent and other women of color. It uses race-class-gender intersectional analysis to highlight the impact environmental health disparities have on communities of color in the age of climate change. Rather than ignore the plight of thousands upon thousands of African American and Latino/a families living in food deserts and the historical connections this social injustice has to white supremacy and access to land rights and clean water, ecowomanist approaches raise awareness about environmental racism. It links a social justice agenda with earth justice recognizing the similar logic of domination at work in parallel oppressions suffered by women of color and the earth. 

Keywords: Alice Walker, Delores S. Williams, ecowomanism, sin of defilement, social justice, women of color

Topics: Class, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Health, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Race, Religion, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, Americas

Year: 2017