Abdul Alkalimat

My new 2022 book is The Future of Black Studies.The Future of Black Studies is a companion volume to The History of Black Studies. As we have just passed the 50th founding year of Black Studies, it is important that we reflect on the history and the future. These two volumes are a contribution to this process. The Future of Black Studies is structured in three parts.

The first part is a critical rethinking of Afro-Futurism. We argue that we have to critically reflect on how Black people themselves have dealt with the future. The main argument is that Black people have fought in their present for a future, one of immediate changes as well as a fulfillment of a vision of freedom.

The second part focuses on how Black Studies is becoming a global activity. It is becoming African Diasporian Studies. We discuss the early history and recent developments of Black Studies in eleven countries in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and North America.

The third section is about eBlack Studies, the transformation based on digital tools and the Internet. This is demonstrated by a model eBlack Studies program launched at the University of Toledo in the 1990s, and a new D-7 eBlack Studies methodology.

Our main goal is to have a broad discussion that involves veteran scholars and activists with young faculty and graduate students. We can take this opportunity to confront the attack on Critical Race Theory as an attack on Black Studies, by reinvigorating the slogan I created for the National Council of Black Studies, "Academic Excellence and Social Responsibility."

Purchase for 30% off, using code ALKALIMAT30.

My 2021 book is The History of Black Studies. It tells how Black people in the community and the academy have worked to understand themselves and spread the knowledge. Purchase for 30% off, using code ALKALIMAT30. Join a book event below!

My research documents the development of Black Studies as an academic field of study and examines various aspects of the Black experience. Black Studies is the production, distribution, and use of knowledge about the Black community, especially information that serves the needs of the Black community.

My academic training began with an undergraduate double major in sociology and philosophy (Ottawa University), followed by a PhD in sociology (University of Chicago). I have been part of Black Studies at institutions in all four regions of the country and edited the main Black Studies listserv, H-Afro-Am (archive), from 1998 to 2014.

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Selected academic writings

1. Gerald A. McWorter and Robert L. Crain. 1967. Subcommunity Gladiatorial Competition: Civil Rights Leadership as a Competitive Process. Social Forces Vol. 46 No. 1: 8-21. pdf
2. Abdul Alkalimat. 1975. Introduction to Afro American Studies. [Intro Green.] Peoples College Press, Chicago, IL. pdf
3. Gerald McWorter. 1980. Racism and the numbers game: Black people and the 1980 census. The Black Scholar Vol. 11 No. 4 (March-April): 61-71. pdf
4. Abdul Alkalimat. 1992. Black power in U.S. Education: Ideology, academic activism and the politics of Black liberation. Africa World Review. May-October. pdf
5. Abdul Alkalimat. 2000. eBlack studies A twenty-first century-challenge. Souls summer: 69-76. pdf
6. Abdul Alkalimat et al. 2013. African American Studies 2013: A national web-based study. Department of African American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. pdf
7. Abdul Alkalimat. 2021. "Rethinking Black Studies as a Freedom Project." USAPP Blog. LSE Phelan US Centre. link