What has it meant to produce knowledge and to teach at the intersection of English literature and Black Studies? This dissertation asks after the history and function of Black literary studies as it emerged as an academic discipline in the late 20th century U.S. academy. I propose that Black literary studies' institutional knowledge project is…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate multimodal composition as an exercise or tool for teaching students theory building. To illustrate, an analysis of artifacts comprising a student's multimodal composition, which was created in response to a multipart literacy assignment on theorizing Blackness, is analyzed. Design/methodology/approach:…

Thomas Kuhn's 1962 groundbreaking work, "The Scientific Revolution," established the process for creating, and the components of, a disciplinary paradigm. This "scientific revolution" has evolved to become the standard for determining a field's claim to disciplinary status. In 2001 and 2003, Ama Mazama, used Kuhn's model to establish the…

It's been 21 years since the nation's first Ph.D. program in African American studies was established at Temple University. One of only 10 university departments in the U.S. that trains doctoral students in Black studies, the Temple program is the top producer of Ph.D. recipients in the field with 160 doctoral graduates. This fall semester, Dr.…

This article provides the syllabus for the course "WRA 125--Writing: The Ethnic and Racial Experience: An Afrocentric Approach." This course will examine writing the American, ethnic and racial experience, using an Afrocentric framework to explore the field of Composition Studies. Students will be introduced to Ebonics/African American Language…

This article focuses on the sense of what an "African" (American) identity could mean when viewed through the processes of migrations and fluid identities of contemporary African immigrant children as they interact with their African (Americans) peers in schools. The purpose of this article is to use data from a study of West African…

This Presidential Address was delivered by Samuel L. Myers Jr. at the Business Luncheon of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), 23rd Annual Research Conference, Washington, DC, November 2, 2001. He contends that modern policy analysis training largely ignores race as a substantive area of inquiry. Many significant…