New Books in Political Science Dianna N. Watkins-Dickerson, "A Black Woman for President: Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun, and Kamala Harris" (UP of Mississippi)
Feb 4, 2026
Dianna N. Watkins-Dickerson, scholar of womanist rhetorical criticism and Black women’s political rhetoric, explores presidential announcement speeches by Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun, and Kamala Harris. She traces rhetorical legacies from Chisholm’s bold self-definition to Braun’s bridge-building and Harris’s contemporary framing. The conversation centers on womanist rhetoric, faith and HBCU influences, and close readings of these pivotal speeches.
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Womanist Rhetoric Reclaims Analytical Ground
- Dianna N. Watkins-Dickerson centers womanist rhetorical theory to analyze Black women's political speech and rejects relying solely on Eurocentric frameworks.
- She argues Black women's lived experience produces distinct rhetorical forms that deserve their own scholarly frameworks.
Faith, HBCUs, And Community Shape Voices
- Watkins-Dickerson locates Black women's public voice often emerging from faith institutions, HBCUs, and Black civic spaces.
- These institutions shape distinctive rhetorics and pathways that propel Black women into national political stages.
Phenomenology Centers Black Women's Experience
- The book uses phenomenology to foreground Black women's embodied experiences of race, gender, and class as central to rhetorical analysis.
- Watkins-Dickerson blends care and joy with critique to honor Black women's rhetorical traditions.
