Khairat Salum and Maisha Manson on Black Panther: Representation, gender and decolonization

Last week Black Panther received six Oscar nominations, challenging the norms of a traditional superhero film. As Cultural Studies graduate students, Maisha Manson and Khairat Salum spoke with the UW Graduate School last year about why this groundbreaking film has resonated with black audiences. Read their reflections.

Both Manson and Salum graduated from the Master of Arts in Cultural Studies program in 2018. Manson studies the performance of queer and trans people of color as resistance. Maisha is also interested in how comics tell narratives of resistance and marginalized identities. Salum studies how the women in her life and in the Swahili culture use the Swahili language, customs and traditions to create spaces where they can tell their stories. Khairat is a visual artist interested in artwork responding to social events.