Africana Theory, Policy, and Leadership

Book excerpt: Africana Theory, Policy, and Leadership is an eclectic work that examines Africana issues from multiple angles, including literature, ethnography, gender, aesthetics, and diversity. The contributors to this volume add unique and insightful works to the collection of research and writing documenting the pan-African experience. Conyers offers the reader an interdisciplinary approach to the study of people of African descent with special emphasis on the black population of the United States. This collection addresses a wide range of topics. "Africana Literature as Social Science" reviews the scholarship of August Wilson and Suzan Lori-Parks. "How Homeland Eritrea Monitors Its American Diaspora" analyses Eritrean government-diaspora tensions. "Toward Theorizing Gender without Feminism" and "Are Black Women the New Mules of the Prison Industrial Complex?" illustrates the double burden of race and gender borne by black women. "Africana Aesthetics" documents black life in post-Civil War Texas with photos. "Africana Studies and Diversity" explores the struggle to maintain athletic programs at historically black colleges. "The Africana Idea in Leadership Studies" offers an Afrocentric approach to the study of critical theory in leadership. This volume presents examples of Africana scholarship in major areas of work, including literature, politics, feminist studies, criminology, history, and sports studies, and is the most recent volume in Transaction's Africana Studies series.