Du Bois Lately: Emergent Critiques of W. E. B. Du Bois at 150

Session Submission Type: Paper Session: Traditional Format

Abstract

This year, 2018, marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of W. E. B. Du Bois. This panel comprised of three interdisciplinary papers uses this milestone to explore critical reflections on his life, thought and legacy. In particular the panelists explore the impact of “Du Bois Lately.” We use “lately” in the sense of emerging critical directions on his work, as well as in our emphasis on late career Du Bois, whose Communist affiliation brought strong rebukes by the U.S. government under McCarthyism, and from other black activists in the Civil Rights Movement. Alex Benson’s paper uniquely explores Du Bois’s interactions with Hellen Keller, and applies a critical analysis of disability studies to Du Bois’s work. Both Edward Carson and Mario Diaz-Perez examine Du Bois’s Marxian analysis and communist politics from similar but different angles. Carson will examine the concept of world revolution in Du Bois’s thought. Diaz-Perez will explore how Du Bois’s turn toward communism was driven by his pessimism about the prospects of social reform in the United States. The commentator for the panel, Debarati Biswas, will respond to the panelists’ papers in light of emergent critical discourses in American studies and Africana studies. Du Bois continues to matter in the 21st century, particularly in this time of resurgent white supremacy after the 2016 presidential election, and this panel will demonstrate why Du Bois’s life and legacy speaks to the urgency of this moment.

Sub Unit

• American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Chair

• Lavelle Porter, CUNY New York City College of Technology

Individual Presentations

• Made to Speak: Du Bois and Helen Keller - Alex Benson, Bard College

• W.E.B. Du Bois’s Evolution into the Communist Party USA - Edward Carson, Governor's Academy

• W.E.B. Du Bois and the Communist Century - Mario Diaz-Perez, University of California-Santa Cruz

Comment

• Debarati Biswas, CUNY - Hunter College