AFRICANA STUDIES

Interpreting African-American Life and History

PENIEL E. JOSEPH
Title: Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, State University of New York-Stony Brook
Education: Ph.D., M.A.,
American History, Temple University; B.A., Africana Studies and B.A., European History, State University of New York-Stony Brook
Age: 34

As an undergraduate, Dr. Peniel E. Joseph had journalism aspirations. Although he chose an academic path instead, he is indeed living that dream of storytelling as well as feeding his lifelong curiosity about history.

Last year’s publication of his first book is proof of that. His narrative, Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour, has gained praise from The Washington Post and other major reviewers. Midnight Hour is a reassessment of the Black Power movement, examining iconic figures as well as little-known ones with a novelist’s eye for detail.

“He possesses the ability and the potential to become perhaps the single-most influential interpreter of African-American life and history of his generation,” says Dr. Manning A. Marable, a Columbia University professor of public affairs, history and African-American studies and one of the country’s leading political scholars. Marable calls Midnight Hour “the most outstanding narrative interpretation” of the Black Power movement ever produced.

Joseph has taught at Stony Brook since 2005. Prior to that, he was a faculty member at the University of Rhode Island for five years. He has taught courses on topics such as Black nationalism in America, the Black radical tradition and American attitudes toward race. He also edited an anthology, The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights and Black Power Era, which was published in March.

Joseph encourages young scholars, especially those in Black studies programs, to try to reach as wide an audience as possible with their writings, rather than focusing merely on impressing other academics.
“There is always a public component to our work,” he says. “We can touch public policy and American race relations while still keeping our scholarly integrity.”