Janell Hobson, who guest-edited Ms. Magazine’s path-breaking ”Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Project” in 2022, has studied the heroic figure for years. Her research highlights the ways that Harriet Tubman features in national memory and popular culture at large as well as what these commemorations reveal about our attitudes toward race, gender, and nationality. Professor Hobson specifically examines how Tubman has been reconfigured over the years as a "Black feminist icon" and the ways in which that view diverges from the more mainstream representations of Tubman as a patriot, a veteran, and other roles that land her squarely within the realm of respectability politics. Join us for this discussion in which Professor Hobson explores what occurs when a historical figure can be retooled and reshaped based on political views and contemporary lenses.
