African-American Studies is a unique field of scholarly inquiry and critical interpretation whose intellectual foundation and development have significantly influenced other disciplines in the academy. The African-American Studies Reader is the largest and most comprehensive anthology yet undertaken in the field. A variety of perspectives are used to present the development of the discipline of African-American Studies. This volume's sixty-one articles are organized into eight sections: (I) The Discipline: Definition and Perspectives; (II) African-American Women's Studies; (III) Historical Perspectives; (IV) Philosophical Perspectives; (V) Theoretical Foundation; (VI) Political Perspectives; (VII) Critical Issues and Perspectives; and (VIII) Curriculum Development and Program Models. This comprehensive anthology includes key selections from many scholars who have made substantial contributions to the development of the discipline. They argue many different perspectives and topics relevant to the study of African American Studies as an intellectual, social, and political focus in/of higher education; they provide discussions of the intellectual and academic roots of the field; they describe the conditions that made its emergence possible; they present its theoretical, research, ideological, and philosophical paradigms; and they examine the past, present and future challenges of African-American Studies. The African-American Studies Reader is an invaluable complement to basic books in the discipline and can be used as an introductory text for graduate and undergraduate courses in the field. It provides an essential guide to enable students to understand how the field evolved, therange of perspectives it encompasses, and the challenge and future directions of African-American Studies. This outstanding collection of various perspectives in African-American Studies will be of interest to individuals new to the field as well as those already involved in research, teaching, and other aspects of African-American Studies.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Introduction to African American Studies: A Reader chronicles the experience of African Americans in the United States from their first arrival in 1619 to present day. The reader demonstrates how African Americans and their experiences have shaped America's historical, political, economic, and cultural history, as well as how the black experience continues to influence American life. In Part I, students read about the continued significance of race in America and receive a primer on Africana studies. Part II examines the arrival of Africans to America, the Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery and states' rights in the early republic, and the issue of democracy in Jeffersonian America. Part III contains readings about Jim Crow, the roots of Plessy vs. Ferguson, and the Niagara Movement. In Part IV, students learn about the impact of African American artists on literature, arts, and culture from 1927 - 1940. Part V includes readings on the Civil Rights Movement. The final part speaks to post-racial America in the age of Barack Obama. Gathering thought-provoking and critical literature, Introduction to African American Studies is an ideal resource for foundational courses within the discipline. Stephen Balkaran is an instructor of African American studies at Central Connecticut State University, where he initiated, developed, and coordinated a Civil Rights Project (2006 - present). He previously served as an instructor of political science at Quinnipiac University, the University of Connecticut-TRI Campus, Post University, and Capital Community College. Before launching his academic career, Mr. Balkaran worked for the African National Congress (Nelson Mandela's ruling party in South Africa) in partnership with the University of Connecticut. His educational background spans from the Presentation College in Trinidad, the University of Connecticut, and Quinnipiac University School of Law, including fellowship at Yale University.

African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions is a comprehensive resource book that recounts the development of the discipline and provides a basic reference source for sixteen areas of knowledge.

This first-ever Black Catholic Studies Reader offers an introduction to the theology and history of the Black Catholic experience from those who know it best: Black Catholic scholars, teachers, activists, and ministers. The reader offers a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary approach that illuminates what it means to be Black and Catholic in the United States. This collection of essays from prominent scholars, both past and present, brings together contributions from theologians M. Shawn Copeland, Kim Harris, Diana Hayes, Bryan Massingale, and C. Vanessa White, and historians Cecilia Moore, Diane Batts Morrow, and Ronald Sharps, and selections from an earlier generation of thinkers and activists, including Thea Bowman, Cyprian Davis, and Clarence Rivers. Contributions delve into the interlocking fields of history, spirituality, liturgy, and biography. Through their contributions, Black Catholic Studies scholars engage theologies of liberation and the reality of racism, the Black struggle for recognition within the Church, and the distinctiveness of African-inspired spirituality, prayer, and worship. By considering their racial and religious identities, these select Black Catholic theologians and historians add their voices to the contemporary conversation surrounding culture, race, and religion in America, inviting engagement from students and teachers of the American experience, social commentators and advocates, and theologians and persons of faith.

Fifty-one essays by writers such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as critics and academics such as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. examine the central texts and arguments in African American literary theory from the 1920s through the present. Contributions are organized chronologically beginning with the rise of a black aesthetic criticism, through the Black Arts Movement, feminism, structuralism and poststructuralism, queer theory, and cultural studies. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR