Of Black Study

'This magnificent book is the best recent treatment we have of the great Black Radical Tradition' - Cornel West

Of Black Study explores how the ideas of Black intellectuals generated different ways of thinking and knowing in their pursuit of conceptual and epistemological freedom.

Joshua Myers explores the work of thinkers who broke with the racial and colonial logics of academic disciplinarity. Bookended by meditations with June Jordan and Toni Cade Bambara, the book focuses on how W.E.B. Du Bois, Sylvia Wynter, Jacob Carruthers and Cedric Robinson contributed to Black Studies approaches to knowledge production within and beyond Western structures of knowledge.

Especially geared toward understanding the contemporary evolution of Black Studies in the neoliberal university, Of Black Study allows us to consider the stakes of intellectual freedom and the path toward a new world.

Introduction: Living (June Jordan)

1. Of Hesitance (W. E. B. Du Bois)

2. Of Human (Sylvia Wynter)

3. Of Speech (Jacob H. Carruthers, Jr.)

4. Of Order (Cedric J. Robinson)

Conclusion: Dreams (Toni Cade Bambara)