Public Intellectualism as Black Sociological Tradition

• In Event: 191 - Regular Session. Public Sociology

Abstract

The prospect of public sociology has recently been in vogue in the discipline of sociology. From presidential addresses to edited volumes, a term that was at moments considered to be a professional scarlet letter has gained debatable legitimacy. As with all concepts and challenges to disciplinary standpoints and traditions, it has notbeen universally received or equally valued. The recent fascinations with public sociology are important, but these discussions have importantly omitted the role of public sociology as central to the Black sociological tradition. While mainstream American sociology queries the role, forms, and importance to sociological knowledge, in the Black sociological tradition public sociology has been a consistent form of engagement for more than a century. Under consideration of this tradition stunts discipline wide understanding of public sociology as well as limits disciplinary diversity and importance. I argue this sustained engagement of publics by Black sociologists is in part a response to marginalization from the central corridors and highest echelons of mainstream American sociology. While in any generation there are few Black sociologists who enjoy mainstream acceptance, by and large, Black sociologists operate simultaneously inside and outside of the academy. Through engagement of the Black public sphere Black sociologist find and create spaces where intellectual work and activist work intersect in legitimated and complex ways.

Author

• R. L'Heureux Lewis-McCoy, City University of New York-City College