Anti‐Bodies, Anti‐Body: A Black Feminist Call and Response: Introduction

This essay introduces the special section Anti‐bodies, Anti‐body: A Black Feminist Call and Response , a collaborative Black feminist intervention that emerges from an interdisciplinary dialogue grounded in anthropological critique. Building on anthropologist Dána‐Ain Davis's concept of “Black anti‐bodies”—bodies caught in the paradox of susceptibility and immunity—we explore how Black and “Othered” bodies are positioned at the intersection of vulnerability and resistance. We frame “anti‐body” as both analytic and praxis—one that challenges dominant epistemologies and foregrounds the survival strategies, care work, and resistance practices of groups that are slotted as Other. The “call and response” format contextualizes the development of the special section and outlines how the collective essays from cultural and medical anthropologists, Black feminist ethnographers, medical humanists, artists, and educators uncover how anti‐bodies function not only as sites of harm but also as political and imaginative resources. We invite readers to engage with anti‐bodies as a frame for unraveling intersecting oppressions and envisioning liberatory futures across disciplines and communities.