W.E.B. the Who? An Analysis of W.E.B. Du Bois in Sociology

• In Event: 324 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. RGC and Theory

Abstract

Has sociology been completely honest in the telling of its history? Sociology is usually thought of as an inclusive discipline, but the absence of W.E.B. Du Bois serves as a striking case to show how it is limited. While contemporary sociologists are in the midst of the quantitative-qualitative methodological divide and the eternal struggle of how to intertwine theory with data, Du Bois offers insights as to how a sociologist can navigate through these problems as well as showing us how to grow as scholars. Unfortunately, Du Bois has largely been excluded from the history of sociology and has been relegated to the margins of other academic disciplines. I attribute this to what I call the “epistemic limbo” – the state whereby the work of a scholar or a group of scholars are suspended from discussion in an academic discipline. The purpose of this paper is to show the important role that Du Bois has played within sociology and the lessons that sociology can learn from his career in hopes of escaping the epistemic limbo in order to reenvision a history of sociology that has honest conversations about one of its excluded giants.

Author

• Luis Romero, University of Texas-Austin