Philosophy of African American Studies

Stephen C. Ferguson II is Associate Professor in Liberal Studies at North Carolina A & T State University, USA. He is the co-author of Beyond The White Shadow: Philosophy, Sports and the African American Experience with John McClendon. He has written for Socialism & Democracy, Cultural Logic, and The Black Scholar, among other journals.

• Introduction.- Chapter 1: Class Struggle in the Ivory Towers: Revisiting the Birth of Black Studies in ‘68.- Chapter 2: The Afrocentric Problematic: The Quest for Particularity and the Negation of Objectivity.- Chapter 3: Old Wine in a New Bottle? The Critique of Eurocentrism in Marima Ani’s Yurugu.- Chapter 4: The Heritage we Renounce: The Utopian Worldview of Afrocentricity.- Chapter 5: What’s Epistemology Got to do with it?: The “Death of Epistemology” in African American Studies.

'At a time when consensus often substitutes for critical discourse in scholarly communities, this book raises the stakes in current conversations about the past, present, and possible future trajectories of Black Studies.' - Clarence Lang, Associate Professor of African and African American Studies, The University of Kansas, USA, and author of Black America in the Shadow of the Sixties: Notes on the Civil Rights Movement, Neoliberalism, and Politics 'This book is the most significant philosophical examination of black studies to emerge in the past forty years. Ferguson provides both critical materialist insights and creative dialectical approaches to this important field of study. Philosophy of African American Studies is a must-read for those who seek to employ AAS as a weapon of liberation.' - John H. McClendon III, Professor of Philosophy, Michigan State University, USA, and author of C. L. R. James's Notes on Dialectics: Left Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism 'Ferguson's erudite work is the definitive clarification of the dialogic, 'The Challenge of Blackness.' Ferguson's epistemological tour de force critique of Afrocentrism will challenge its proponents to deeply rethink a flawed, ahistorical paradigm. Brilliantly written, this book takes a keen look at how a pop culture idea is driven by the collective sensibilities of 'false blackness' among African Americans.' - Malik Simba, Emeritus Professor of Africana Studies and History, California State University-Fresno, USA