Projects
I entered the Academy primarily because I felt it was the best place from which to wrestle with and understand the contemporary condition. I no longer think there is a “best place” but the Academy has given me a powerful set of tools and resources as well as a platform. I aim to use these tools and resources in three different ways. As a scholar I seek to rigorously examine and unpack the production and reproduction of inequality. As an author I aim to write and publish work that deals with this issue in a variety of academic and non-academic spaces. As an intellectual I use my position to explore other ways of seeing, imagining, and representing the political. While you can find my cv here, below you’ll find select highlights as well as some my other work projects.
Academic Research
Public Work
Photography
Over the past several years I’ve written about American institutional legitimacy in the wake of the contentious 2000 Presidential election, about the effects of longterm black political empowerment on black participation, about the role of media narratives on black attitudes about HIV/AIDS, and about the determinants of support for black nationalism, among other things. My first book Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics is one of the first books to empirically examine the effect of hip-hop and rap on black politics, as well as one of the first books to take the neoliberal turn in black politics seriously. My second book (in progress) is a followup, examining the neoliberal turn in black politics writ large.
Select Publications:
2011. Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics.University of Minnesota Press.
2010. “Context, Black Empowerment, and African American Political Participation.”American Politics Research 38:909-30. (with Harwood McClerking)
2010. “Episodic Frames, Hiv/Aids, and African American Public Opinion.” Political Research Quarterly 63:257-68.
2009. “Local Political Participation and Black Political Empowerment.” Urban Affairs Review 2:274-285. (with Harwood McClerking)
2007. “AIDS, Context, and Black Politics.” National Political Science Review 11:87-102. (with Rena Boss-Victoria)
2005.“True to their Native Land: Distinguishing Attitudinal Support for Pan-Africanism from Black Nationalism.”The Dubois Review: Social Science Research on Race.2 (1): 91-111. (with Todd Shaw and Rob Brown)
Again, more here.
The example of W.E.B. Dubois looms large for me because he was both a straight ahead scholar, and also someone truly dedicated to changing the world through public engagement. While I disagree with some of Dubois’ politics and will not come close to his level of production in this lifetime, I too seek to contribute and change the world through engaging with the public broadly considered. I’ve done this through a variety of outlets, but can be heard most regularly on the Marc Steiner Show, where I have a monthly slot, and on NPR’s Tell Me More with Michele Martin. The first black academic to blog, along with my academic writings, I have written for The Urbanite, for Salon, for The Grio, and for other online publications. I am currently working on a collection of writings tentatively titled “Off to Battle: Essays on Life in the Obama Age”.
Select Media Work:
2011. “Thoughts on the Debt Ceiling Compromise”, The Marc Steiner Show
2011. “Race, Black Nationalism, and Political Representation in American Cities”, The Marc Steiner Show
2011. “A Tribute to Historian Manning Marable”, BookTV
2011. “Professor Fulfills Obligation as Father of Five”, NPR
2010. “White Space, Black Space”, The Urbanite.
I believe the tools of analysis I’ve mastered in the academy are necessary but not sufficient for understanding, explaining, and responding to the contemporary condition. So what I’ve learned other skills to complement those I’ve mastered. The most notable is photography. I’m particularly interested in the role of the visual in shaping our attitudes and our behaviors. Along these lines I’ve taught myself photography. In 2010 I participated in a year long black and white photography project–my goal was to take a black and white photo everyday. At least some of the pictures I took detail the lives of working class men and women in a way that none of my quantitative analyses can. What do you see?
