The Social Science of African American Literature and Vice Versa?

Starts: February 24, 2011 at 3:30 PM
Ends: February 24, 2011 at 4:30 AM
Location: Blow Hall 201
Contact: Prof. William “Sandy” Darity, African and African American Studies, Public Policy and Economics, Duke University

Summary

Prof. William “Sandy” Darity has focused significant energy in recent years on addressing the perceived “disconnect” between the social sciences and the humanities. His talk here at William and Mary will be about his efforts to bridge the disciplines.

Full Description

William A. (“Sandy”) Darity Jr. is Arts & Sciences Professor of Public Policy Studies and Professor of African and African American Studies and Economics at Duke University. Previously he served as director of the Institute of African American Research, director of the Moore Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program, director of the Undergraduate Honors Program in economics, and director of Graduate Studies at the University of North Carolina.

Sandy’s research focuses on inequality by race, class and ethnicity, stratification economics, schooling and the racial achievement gap, North-South theories of trade and development, skin shade and labor market outcomes, the economics of reparations, the Atlantic slave trade and the Industrial Revolution, doctrinal history and the social psychological effects of unemployment exposure. He has published or edited 10 books and more than 125 articles in professional journals.

Sandy has also focused significant energy in recent years on addressing the perceived “disconnect” between the social sciences and the humanities. His talk here at William and Mary will be about his efforts to bridge the disciplines. 

Here is a synopsis of a course he is teaching this semester on “Social Theory, Economic Policy, and African American Literature:”

This course is predicated on the view that African American fictional works typically carry with them a social theory of the sources of racial disparity in the United States. It will seek to extract the underlying social theory embedded in a series of works in African American literature, assess those social theories from the standpoint of relevant research findings from the social sciences, and critically assess the implicit economic policy that corresponds to the social theory aimed at achieving racial equality. Thus, a major objective of the course will be to confront the narrative messages about how the racial world works in literature, film, and both the interpretive and quantitative social sciences.