United States, Reference, African-American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Higher & Continuing Education 

Explores the interdisciplinary dimensions of black studies.In Black Studies as Human Studies, Joyce A. Joyce brings black studies back to its beginning, demonstrating that the humanities lie at the intellectual and pedagogical center of black studies. She proposes that by agreeing on a core set of values and looking at the works of black writers from historical and contemporary periods, these values are manifested in a history of protest, the hegemony of racism, and the issues of gender discrimination and homophobia. Interviews with Sonia Sanchez, Askia ToureŒ, and Amiri Baraka, who formed the faculty of the first black studies program at San Francisco State College (now University) in 1968, give agency to the creative writers and humanitarians who have worked in black studies for decades and corroborate Joyce's position on the essential, but not exclusive, role the humanities play in black studies. Praising the interdisciplinary nature of black studies, Joyce demonstrates its role as a human science and the moral responsibility of the teacher and the scholar to address what it means to be human and the possibilities for societal transformation. “For more than 25 years, Joyce has confronted the status quo of traditional scholarship; and in her latest effort, she continues pushing the envelope.” — Black Issues Book Review"What I like most about this book is Joyce's voice and syntax. Her writing isn't pretentious, and she approaches criticism without being subordinate to a single current. It is clear that the problems she is addressing are living in her soul, and that sensitivity comes through with every word, which makes this text more than an academic intervention. It is the voice of a scholar who remembers always what it means to be a teacher." — Lewis R. Gordon, author of Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism - from Amzon