Oxford Handbook of W. E. B. Du Bois

The Oxford Handbook of W. E. B. Du Bois is a work detailing the life and works of the twentieth century scholar and activist, W. E. B. Du Bois. It contains fifty chapters covering the multidimensional life and works of Du Bois. The contributing authors are experts on the topics about Du Bois which they authored. Because Du Bois was a prodigious twentieth century scholar and activist, these chapters delve into the numerous contributions he made in these domains. The Handbook is written in a clear accessible style enabling scholars, students, and the public to understand this complex and controversial historical figure. Du Bois is a fascinating figure because he lived for 95 years and often changed his ideas and activism as he grew over time. Du Bois's scholarship and activism addressed numerous historical developments and major social movements. The Handbook follows these tumultuous times where Du Bois struggled to make sense of the role that race, and racism, played in the development of the modern world. In so doing, this volume excavates the many lessons Du Bois's scholarship and activism hold for the contemporary world.

The Handbook will serve as a guidepost for the emerging Du Boisian scholarship that has developed among scholars and students within and beyond the academy. It will assist in clarifying and enhancing the paradigm shifts Du Bois's work is currently generating in numerous intellectual disciplines and activist circles. The Oxford Handbook of W. E. B. Du Bois will stir needed debates for many years that are crucial for democracy to remain vital and flourishing.

Aldon D. Morris is the Leon Forrest Professor, Emeritus, of Sociology and Black Studies at Northwestern University. Morris is the author of The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement, The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology, Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, and The Subjective Roots of Protest. He is author of one hundred articles and book chapters. Morris was a consultant for the documentary, "Eyes on the Prize." A film, "The Scholar Affirmed," featuring Morris' work and life was released in 2018. In 2019, Morris was elected 112th President of The American Sociological Association. Morris received the 2020 W. E. B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award of the American Sociological Association.

Michael Schwartz is Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology, Stony Brook University. Professor Schwartz has written extensively in the areas of economic sociology and social movements. His writings on Iraq have appeared in Asia Times, Mother Jones, and Contexts, as well as his book War Without End: The Iraq War in Context (Haymarket Books). In Radical Protest and Social Structure (Academic Press), Schwartz develops the concept of "structural ignorance" to refer to how individuals make choices and decisions in regard to collective action based on their position in the social structure, which constrains their access to relevant information.

Cheryl Johnson-Odim is Provost and Professor of History, Emerita, at Dominican University. She is the author of Women and Gender in the History of Sub-Saharan Africa (American Historical Association); For Women and the Nation: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria (University of Illinois Press); and co-editor of Expanding the Boundaries of Women's History (Indiana University Press). Johnson-Odim is a contributor to OUP's Dictionary of African Biography and the author of 25 articles in journals and chapters in books. She has served on the boards of the African Studies Association, The American Council of Learned Societies and many other professional organizations. She formerly chaired the History Department at Loyola University Chicago and served as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Columbia College Chicago. She testified before the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid.

Walter R. Allen is Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education and Distinguished Professor of Education, Sociology and African American Studies. Publications include Hidden in Plain Sight: Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America (2020); As the World Turns: Implications of Global Shifts in Higher Education for Theory, Research and Practice (2012); Towards a Brighter Tomorrow: College Barriers, Hopes and Plans of Black, Latino/a and Asian American Students in California (2009); and Does Race Matter in Everyday Diversity? (2012). Professor Allen was expert witness in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger; and U.S. v. Fordice, higher education desegregation cases before the US Supreme Court. He also testified before the United Nations in Geneva and the US House of Representatives. He is frequently cited in print and electronic media.

Marcus Anthony Hunter is the Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the Division of the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at UCLA, coiner of #BlackLivesMatter, and author of four books, including Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation (HarperCollins/Amistad, 2024) and Black Citymakers: How The Philadelphia Negro Changed Urban America (Oxford University Press, 2013), His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Dr. Hunter's insights resonate on C-SPAN's BookTV, MSNBC, NPR, and BBC. At the same time, his commentary punctuates the pages of the Sacramento Bee, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Du Bois Review, City & Community, and Ethnic & Racial Studies.

Karida L. Brown is Professor of Sociology at Emory University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on race and racism, sports and society, and historical archival methods. In addition to her books, Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia (2018) and The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line (2020), her research is published in various peer-reviewed academic journals such as the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Southern Cultures, and The Du Bois Review. Dr. Brown is a Fulbright Scholar, and her international research has been supported by national foundations such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Hellman Fellows Fund. Brown currently serves on the board of The Obama Presidency Oral History Project.

Dan S. Green was Professor of Sociology in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Kentucky State University. He taught at several schools over a thirty-year span. Prior to teaching at KSU, he was Director of Academic Affairs at Penn State, Beaver. His dissertation on the sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois was the first doctoral dissertation written about the eminent scholar. He was the author of several articles on W.E.B. Du Bois and American sociology and along with Edwin Driver, Professor Green coedited W.E.B. Du Bois: On Sociology and the Black Community (University of Chicago Press). Professor Green died in March 2023.