Research Guides: Center for African and African American Studies Research Guide: African American Studies

Learning the Landscape of African & African American Studies

African American Studies and African Studies disciplines have a long and rich history of professional associations, conferences, mentoring programs, scholarly journals and publishers, and materials including specific handbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries (sometimes called secondary or tertiary sources) to help learn the scholarly landscape. Black Digital Scholarship combines emerging research methods and creative expression to illuminate core themes in the field. There continues to be intersectional scholarship addressing how race, class, gender, ability, and sexuality across African American communities. These materials are a sampling of the types of resources available within the scholarly landscape!

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Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
Established in 1915, the mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community. ASALH features an annual conference and Black history month events, scholarly journals, and support networks.
Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD)
ASWAD is a not-for-profit organization of international scholars seeking to further their understanding of Africa and the African Diaspora. ASWAD hosts conferences and symposia, as well as through publications. ASWAD looks for ways to share this work with students and the general community.
National Council for Black Studies
National Council for Black Studies exists to promote academic excellence and social responsibility in the discipline of Africana/Black Studies through the production and dissemination of knowledge, professional development and training, and advocacy for social change and social justice.
Association for Ethnic Studies (AES)
The oldest ethnic studies association in the United States, the Association for Ethnic Studies (AES) was founded in 1972. A non-profit organization, AES provides an interdisciplinary forum for scholars and activists concerned with the national and international dimensions of race and ethnicity. The Association welcomes scholars and teachers at all educational levels, students, libraries, civic and governmental organizations, and all persons interested in ethnicity, ethnic groups, intergroup relations, and the cultural life of ethnic minorities. AES hosts conferences and a scholarly journal.
Critical Ethnic Studies Association (CESA)
The Critical Ethnic Studies Association is a transnational, interdisciplinary, un-disciplinary association of scholars, activists, students, artists, media makers , educators, and others who are directly concerned with interrogating the limitations of Ethnic Studies in order to better engage the historical stakes of the field. CESA hosts conferences and a journal.
African Studies Association (ASA)
Established in 1957, the African Studies Association is the flagship membership organization devoted to enhancing the exchange of information about Africa. With almost 2,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, the African Studies Association encourages the production and dissemination of knowledge about Africa, past and present. Based in the United States, the ASA supports understanding of an entire continent in each facet of its political, economic, social, cultural, artistic, scientific, and environmental landscape. Members include scholars, students, teachers, activists, development professionals, policymakers and donors. ASA hosts conferences, journals, and support networks.
Cultural Studies Association (CSA)
Founded in 2003, the CSA is the largest network of cultural studies scholars, educators, practitioners, artists, and activists in the United States. CSA hosts a conference, journal, and working groups.
Caribbean Studies Association (CSA)
The Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) is an independent professional organization devoted to the promotion of Caribbean studies from a multidisciplinary, multicultural point of view. CSA hosts a conference, journal, working groups, mentoring, and more.
African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS)
"The African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) is an independent scholarly organization that aims to foster dialogue about researching, writing, and teaching black thought and culture. AAIHS originally began as a blog founded by Christopher Cameron in early 2014. Cameron founded the AAIHS blog to “provide a space for scholars in disparate fields to discuss the many aspects of teaching and researching Black intellectual history.”'
Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH)
"In 1977, recognizing the need for a uniquely focused organizational structure within their profession, three Black women historians spearheaded the move to recruit other Black women nationwide: Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Eleanor Smith, and Elizabeth Parker.

The ABWH constitution outlines four organizational goals: to establish a network among the membership; to promote Black women in the profession; to disseminate information about opportunities in the field; and to make suggestions concerning research topics and repositories."

Bibliographies are carefully curated lists of related articles, books, films, and more, on a given topic. Bibliographies like these are created by scholars with deep knowledge of the sub-fields within African and African American Studies. Lists like these can be a powerful way to quickly orient yourself to a new part of the scholarly landscape.

"Afrofuturism" in Oxford Bibliographies Online Literary and Critical Theory by English, Daylanne K.
Call Number: Online
Publication Date: 2019
"Afrofuturism refers to a flourishing contemporary movement of African American, African, and Black diasporic writers, artists, musicians, and theorists." This bibliography gives an overview and suggest key books, articles, and works for studying Afrofuturism.
"Black Women Writers in the United States" in Oxford Bibliographies African American Studies by Terrefe, Selamawit D.
Call Number: Online
Publication Date: 2016
Provides an overview and key books, articles, people, and resources for studying Black women writers in the US.
African American Studies in Oxford Bibliographies Online by Jarrett, Gene Andrew
Call Number: Online
African American Studies has gained a deep foothold in higher education. Ever since the national rise of “Black Studies” during the second half of the twentieth century, this field has focused on the distinctive individuals, places, events, concepts, and circumstances of African American history. Regularly updated and expanded with new content, the module will provide bibliographic articles that identify, organize, cite, and annotate scholarship on key areas of African American Studies—culture, politics, law, history, society, religion, and economics.

Sometimes called reference works, handbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias within African and African American studies can focus deeply on specialized topics within the field. These are wonderful sources for background information and understanding the historical context and existing conversations within the field.

Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism by Reiland Rabaka (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9780429020193
Publication Date: 2020-04-30
The Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism provides an international, intersectional, and interdisciplinary overview of, and approach to, Pan-Africanism, making an invaluable contribution to the ongoing evolution of Pan-Africanism and demonstrating its continued significance in the 21st century. The handbook features expert introductions to, and critical explorations of, the most important historic and current subjects, theories, and controversies of Pan-Africanism and the evolution of black internationalism.
Routledge Handbook of Minority Discourses in African Literature by Tanure Ojaide (Editor); Joyce Ashuntantang (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9780429354229
Publication Date: 2020-04-29
This handbook provides a critical overview of literature dealing with groups of people or regions that suffer marginalization within Africa. The contributors examine a multiplicity of minority discourses expressed in African literature, including those who are culturally, socially, politically, religiously, economically, and sexually marginalized in literary and artistic creations.
Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies by S. N. Nyeck (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9781351141963
Publication Date: 2019-12-06
This handbook offers diverse perspectives on queer Africa, incorporating scholarly contributions on themes that reflect and inflect the trajectories of queer contributions to African studies within and outside academia. The Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies incorporates a range of unique perspectives, reflecting ongoing struggles between regimes of inclusion and those of transformation.
The Routledge International Handbook of Penal Abolition by Michael J. Coyle (Editor); David Scott (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9780429425035
Publication Date: 2021-03-30
The Routledge International Handbook of Penal Abolition provides a comprehensive look at the latest developments in the 21st-century penal abolitionism movement, both reflecting on key critical thought and setting the agenda for local and global abolitionist ideas and interventions over the coming decade. Penal abolitionists question the legitimacy of criminal law, policing, courts, prisons and more broadly the idea of punishment, to argue that they actually increase individual and societal problems.
The Routledge Handbook of Disability Activism by Maria Berghs (Editor); Tsitsi Chataika (Editor); Yahya El-Lahib (Editor); Kudakwashe Dube (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9781351165082
Publication Date: 2019-10-28
The onslaught of neoliberalism, austerity measures and cuts, impact of climate change, protracted conflicts and ongoing refugee crisis, rise of far right and populist movements have all negatively impacted on disability. Yet, disabled people and their allies are fighting back and we urgently need to understand how, where and what they are doing, what they feel their challenges are and what their future needs will be.

Oxford African American Studies Center
In addition to primary source materials, this database contains several great reference encyclopedias, including Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

There are dozens of scholarly journals within the field of African and African American Studies, and many closely related disciplines have scholarly journals you might like to browse. Here are a few to start exploring!

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