Naimah Zulmadelle Pétigny is a Black feminist scholar, dancer and educator. As an assistant professor in the Arts and Studies department, she holds a Schiller Family Assistant Professorship in Race in Art and Design.
Pétigny’s research and teaching is shaped by her experiences as a youth organizer, racial justice facilitator and dancer in professional ensembles. She holds a BA in Women’s Studies and Sociology from Vassar College and earned her PhD in Feminist Studies in the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota.
Pétigny’s research and writing is multimodal and exists at the intersections of Black feminist theory, gender studies and performance studies. She writes from, and towards, expansive and experimental sites of Blackness. Her dissertation, The Hold is Also an Embrace: Readings in Contemporary Black Feminist Performance, analyzes contemporary dance theater performance by Black women and Black gender queer artists to rethink the linkages between coloniality, performance, erotics and Black liberation. Pétigny’s broader research continues to wade in Black experimentalisms in art, pedagogy and social practice that embody radical modes of being, long denied to Black peoples.
Pétigny’s work has been published in Commoning Ethnography, The Walker Art Center Magazine, Agitate! Unsettling Knowledges Journal and the Routledge International Handbook of Gender and Feminist Geographies. Her research has been generously supported by the Steven J. Schochet Endowment for Queer, Trans and Sexuality Studies; the Race, Indigeneity, Gender & Sexuality Studies Center; and The Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Pétigny’s collaborations with Black dance companies, art centers and networks of social-justice educators demonstrate a commitment to building dynamic spaces of connection and creative research. Within her classrooms, Pétigny supports students’ holistic growth as analytical thinkers, creative writers and changemakers.
Courses
Fall 2024 Courses
LAS E101-11 - FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LAS E101-11
FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
PeriodFall 2024
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: MTH | 1:10 PM - 2:40 PMInstructor(s): Naimah PetignyLocation(s): College Building, Room 302Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.
First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.
Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into designated section(s).
Major Requirement | BFA
LAS E101-12 - FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LAS E101-12
FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
PeriodFall 2024
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: MTH | 2:50 PM - 4:20 PMInstructor(s): Naimah PetignyLocation(s): College Building, Room 302Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.
First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.
Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into designated section(s).
Major Requirement | BFA
GAC 702G-01 - RESEARCH ISSUES
LevelGraduate
UnitLiberal Arts
Subject Global Arts And Cultures
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
GAC 702G-01
RESEARCH ISSUES
LevelGraduate
UnitLiberal Arts
Subject Global Arts And Cultures
PeriodFall 2024
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: T | 1:10 PM - 4:10 PMInstructor(s): Naimah PetignyLocation(s): Auditorium, Room 522Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Introduces a variety of interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisiciplinary approaches to thinking about cultural imagination and cultural production. Students explore their own research habits and consider the viability of standard as well as experimental approaches for the kinds of projects they want to pursue. Key to the work of the course is exploration of the challenges (definitional, practical, ethical) that arise in doing different kinds of research. A requirement in the first semester of the GAC MA degree, the course creates a common vocabulary and experience for all GAC MA students. The course will be run as a seminar, with weekly reading assignments, regular writing assignments, and in class discussion.
Enrollment is limited to Global Arts and Cultures Students.
