Introduction

Womanism has been evolving as a perspective and praxis, inside and outside academia, for forty-five years. This introduction traces this evolution, substantiating the case that womanist studies is now a distinct, cross- and transdisciplinary field in its own right, as well as a platform for alternative world-making. Emphasis will be placed on what makes womanism a distinctively optimistic point of view and agentive praxis in these times of accelerating global crises and widespread trauma. The claim that womanist studies is now a distinct, multidisciplinary field will be justified historically (through an updated literature review) and in terms of its broad political, geographical, and metaphysical reach as a segue to presenting the work of these new womanist scholars.