Revisiting Early Sociologists and the American Sociological Society: Exclusionary Patterns of Black Sociological Contributions

• In Event: 487 - Section on Teaching and Learning Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Teaching and Diversity

Abstract

How and why did the ASA exclude the scholarship of Blacks—men and women— as well as disregard the serious sociological study concerning so many Americans in the early 20th century? Who contributed to the field in spite of this exclusion? Which were the primary fields for Black social scientists, which enabled entry and safe space of sociological query? These are several questions addressed in this essay, designed after a 1981 article, ”Early Women Sociologists and the American Sociological Society: The Patterns of Exclusion and Participation”, written by sociologist Mary Jo Deegan. Innovations of this article examine early sociological scholarship of Black social theorists in spite of perpetual preventions to the formal academy of the social sciences. It also explores the subsequent implications of Black scholastic exclusion on current approaches to sociological study.

Author

• Mia R. Keeys, Vanderbilt University