American Studies, Race & Society

Daughters of the Dust

Film Synopsis:
Languid look at the Gullah culture of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia where African folk-The women of the Peazant family struggle with a decision which will remake their relationship with their heritage and with each other. Julie Dash’s groundbreaking 1991 film tells the story of generational change in the Gullah community of the South Carolina sea islands with rich visual language and non-linear narrative.  

Content Warning: drama, romance, violence, profanity, racial bias, PG 18+


The film was screened on February 1 via a virtual event and was followed by a community discussion facilitated by Professor Dana Olwan

Dana Olwan is an Associate Professor in the Master of Arts in Women, Society, and Development program at Hamad bin Khalifa University. Her work is located at the nexus of feminist theorizations of gender violence, transnational solidarities, and critical feminist pedagogies. Her writings have appeared in Signs, Feminist Formations, the Journal of Settler Colonial Studies, American Quarterly, and Feral Feminisms. Her first book Gender Violence and The Transnational Politics of the Honor Crime was published by Ohio State University Press in 2021. She is co-editor with Chandra Talpade Mohanty of the Reimagining Comparative Feminist Studies book series from Palgrave Macmillan. She teaches courses on feminist theory, gender politics in the Middle East and North Africa, and women, labor, and development.


Beyoncé, Lemonade (2016)

Katherine McKittrick

Saidiya Hartman

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