Recovering the Global Dimensions of W.E.B. Du Bois’s Career

W.E.B. Du Bois is perhaps best remembered for his foundational contributions to African American studies, sociology, history, and civil rights.

These achievements are typically accorded to the early years of his career as a scholar-activist, while the successes of his later years receive comparatively less attention. Yet, his later years offer keen insight on a global vision for emancipation and anti-colonialism, particularly through his much-maligned venture into novel writing.

Challenging this bifurcated view of Du Bois’s biography, this talk explores Risam’s use of digital cultural mapping and citation analysis to recover both the value of Du Bois’s literary work and a global legacy for African diaspora and postcolonial studies that runs throughout his career.