Symbols and Social Activism: An Agenda for African Studies and the ASA for the 21st Century

Greene, Sandra E.

doi:10.2307/525362

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…16.See Gershenhorn (2004:148–56) for a full accounting. See also Martin and West (1999:88) and Greene (1999:3–4).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

#HerskovitsMustFall? A Meditation on Whiteness, African Studies, and the Unfinished Business of 1968

Allman¹

2019

Afr. stud. rev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Why is African Studies in North America dominated by white scholars? In this reflection piece, the 2018 president of the African Studies Association revisits the organization’s sixty-year history, exposing the processes by which white privilege was hardwired into African Studies at the organization’s founding in 1957 and then secured first by the displacement of the much older tradition of African American scholarship on Africa and second by the “recolonization American-style” of knowledge production on the continent in the postcolonial era.

show abstract

“…16.See Gershenhorn (2004:148–56) for a full accounting. See also Martin and West (1999:88) and Greene (1999:3–4).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4.See, esp., Greene (1999); Isaacman (2003); Robinson (2008); Zeleza (2010); and Pritchett (2014). Though not their presidential lectures, see Zeleza (1997) and Robinson (2007).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

#HerskovitsMustFall? A Meditation on Whiteness, African Studies, and the Unfinished Business of 1968

Allman¹

2019

Afr. stud. rev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…3.For insights into some of the controversies that have shaped, and continue to shape, the ASA and African Studies, see Zeleza (1997); Greene (1999); Mama (2007); Ogot (2009); Ampofo (2016). …”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ASA at 60: Advocacy in an Age of Tyranny

Pitcher¹

2018

Afr. stud. rev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Although the sixtieth anniversary of the ASA’s founding offers an occasion to celebrate the association’s accomplishments, it also coincides with a historical moment of resurgent authoritarianism, growing intolerance, and renascent nativism. Democratic institutions in the United States and abroad are under attack; bigotry, injustice, and incivility have become re-energized. This article reflects on the discourses, spaces, and technologies employed by Africans to contest the multiple expressions of political exclusion on the continent over the last sixty years. It finds inspiration and lessons that might guide us as we develop our own forms of political advocacy in this illiberal age.

show abstract

“…19 A Scholarly Commitment to Social Action: A Collective Biography The Association's conservative institutional culture did not go unchallenged. Throughout the sixties and seventies insurgent voices within the Africanist community criticized its elitist character and its effort to "depoliticize" African studies while simultaneously supporting the global interests of the United States (Greene 1999;Martin & West 1999;Mikell 1999). Opposition within the ASA reflected the concerns of a new generation of Africanists, many of whom had been involved in or been inspired by the civil rights, antiwar, antiapartheid, pan-Africanist, and feminist movements.…”

Section: The Pioneering Legacy Of African American Intellectual Engagmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While preparing this essay, I was struck by how many recent presidents of the African Studies Association have used this occasion to stress the crisis that confronts our field (Berger 1997;Greene 1999;Hyden 1996;Mikell 1999;Robinson 1994). Although their presentations differed in detail, they have highlighted an interrelated set of financial, epistemological, and political factors, which, taken together, contribute to the vulnerability of African studies.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacies of Engagement: Scholarship Informed by Political Commitment

Isaacman¹

2003

African Studies Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

: Scholar-activists, by virtue of their critical engagement in the central issues of the day and their role in the production and dissemination of knowledge, have a unique opportunity to challenge the inherited orthodoxies in the academy and in the larger world in which we live. Within the field of African studies they have served as powerful critics and have broken new substantive, conceptual, methodological, and epistemological ground. To sustain this thesis, this essay explores three interrelated issues. First, it critically assesses the concept of value-free research—a notion which is commonly used to dismiss engaged scholarship as inherently flawed. Second, it documents how a number of African American scholars, passionately committed to social justice and to an end to racial oppression, produced pioneering work on Africa well before the field of African studies gained academic legitimacy in the post–World War II era. Finally, it highlights some of the critically important contributions that activist scholars have made to the study of Africa. The intellectual biographies of six prominent Africanists—Claude Aké, Basil Davidson, Francis Deng, Susan Geiger, Joseph Harris, and Walter Rodney—illuminate how political commitment can fuel theoretical and methodological innovation.

show abstract

Symbols and Social Activism: An Agenda for African Studies and the ASA for the 21st Century

Cited by 7 publications

References 9 publications

#HerskovitsMustFall? A Meditation on Whiteness, African Studies, and the Unfinished Business of 1968

#HerskovitsMustFall? A Meditation on Whiteness, African Studies, and the Unfinished Business of 1968

The ASA at 60: Advocacy in an Age of Tyranny

Legacies of Engagement: Scholarship Informed by Political Commitment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About