Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, Affiliated Faculty, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Chair, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
Spotlight on AAS 498: DAAS in Action – Black Ecologies
Born and raised in France to a French mother and French Caribbean father, Dr. Bénédicte Boisseron had always been fascinated with African American literature, earning her Master’s degree in African American literature in France and later her Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies from the University of Michigan. She “realized that there are so many synergies and connections between black France, and the French Caribbean and African American literature and culture.” She specifically cites authors such as James Baldwin (American writer and civil rights activist) and Édouard Glissant (French writer and poet) who helped her center all of the connections.
When writing her dissertation, her parents moved from France to the French Caribbean with a German Shepard, where she noticed that people exhibited a strong reaction to the watchdog. This is what led her to expand her field and begin to research the “history of blackness, and animals, and in particular dogs, not only in the French Caribbean but also in the American South.” Dogs were often used by slave owners as a form of repression. Sending dogs after freedom seekers was one of the “most violent and dehumanizing forms of repression against the enslaved.” Her book Afro-Dog: Blackness and the Animal Question explores these topics of animality and racialization. Dr. Boisseron does note that “the history of slavery in the French Caribbean context is different because there are no known slave narratives,” meaning there are many untold stories of slavery in the French Caribbean.
This research led her to expand what she teaches and studies to nonhuman and human interactions in the form of Black ecology. During COVID, Dr. Boisseron wrote an article titled “Black Ecology in COVID Times” which she published in the journal The Black Scholar which was founded by Nathan Hare who “published the iconic piece on black ecology” in 1970. While looking at Black ecology through different lenses, she researched the use of pesticides and monoculture crops in the French Caribbean, which she describes as “an environmental scandal of epic proportions.” Coming this semester in the course, she is expanding the course content to be more global, while also connecting those ideas back to local issues. One example is the use of pesticides on crops in the French Caribbean, where the pesticides were produced in the United States, but banned for use here, and instead sent to the Caribbean for use, and “given the green light by France to be used in Martinique and Guadeloupe.” Dr. Boisseron points out that this is often the pattern we see in “a global context, how the big players decide for the small architects and many of them [being from] the Black community.”
Alongside two of her colleagues, Dr. Boisseron received a grant from the Mellon Foundation for Affirming Multivocal Humanities to help develop different sections of DAAS in Action. Her section focuses on race and nature, with this Fall semester being the second time that Dr. Boisseron is teaching AAS 498. In this course, she will have students examine multiple forms of media from Black authors, scholars, and artists. She wants students to realize that the connection between Blackness and the environment is not just about environmental justice, while important, she “want(s) [students] to think about Black joy and Black contemplation in nature” and “that the Black experience is not just about harm.” To do this, students read works from Bell Hooks and Alice Walker “where they actually talk about the enjoyment of nature, and raising their chickens and enjoying all of that.”
Last semester, Dr. Boisseron had students create a podcast as their final project, but as a result of receiving the grant from the Mellon Foundation, she can experiment with final projects for the course. This semester, she is having students create an immersive outdoor exhibit, in collaboration with the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. This exhibit will be similar to The Bond of Live Things Everywhere in the New York Botanical Gardens which was curated by Joshua Bennett. Similar to the installation at the New York Botanical Gardens, students will read the anthology Black Nature by Camille Dungy and choose 10 to 15 of her poems to be included in the outdoor exhibit. Because December in Michigan can prove to be quite tough, this assignment is a midterm project with the hopes of being installed in October in the Matthaei Botanical Gardens near the Peony Gardens. 11/21 UPDATE: You can visit ‘Earth Song: A Black Nature Walk’ online or at MBGNA on the Laurel Ridge Trail. In addition, Dr. Boisseron is planning a Black Ecologies Symposium in November, which will bring in some of the leading scholars around Black ecology. Students will read some of the authors’ work in advance and have a chance to ask questions and interact with them during the symposium.
Dr. Boisseron’s advice to other educators who want to teach in the sustainability space is to “go for it and find your own path, that is bring your own contribution for the next generation.” She wants educators to realize that even if they think they do not have the scientific qualifications to talk about climate change, people need to see that sustainability has many different lenses and views which makes it all the more important to share your experiences and qualifications with students.
For students interested in the intersection of race and nature, you can take AAS 498 with Dr. Boisseron this Fall semester.
As a part of the Year of Sustainability, we are interested in sharing, uplifting, and highlighting stories about the people who make up LSA and have experience teaching about sustainability. We sat down with a series of LSA faculty to discuss their background and courses and will feature these conversations in our Faculty Spotlight series.
To contact the LSA Year of Sustainability Team, please contact sustainable-lsa@umich.edu.
