- Political Science
Brown University
Box 1844
36 Prospect Street
Providence, RI 02912
Phone 401-863-2825
Melvin Rogers
Brown University, Political Science, Faculty Member
- Brown University, Africana Studies, Department Memberadd
- Melvin L. Rogers is Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and... moreMelvin L. Rogers is Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Brown University. Professor Rogers received his B.A. From Amherst College, his M.Phil. in political thought and intellectual history from the University of Cambridge, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. In addition he has held a Ford Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship, an Exchange Scholar position in the department of Religion at Princeton University, and additional appointments in political science at University of Virginia, Swarthmore College, Carleton College, philosophy at Emory University, and African American Studies and Political Science at UCLA.edit
http://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/e-media/podcasts/aloud/live-vault-rare-recordings-james-baldwin Live From the Vault: Rare Recordings of James Baldwin In Conversation with Melvin Rogers and Nina Revoyr Brian DeShazor, host of... more
http://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/e-media/podcasts/aloud/live-vault-rare-recordings-james-baldwin
Live From the Vault: Rare Recordings of James Baldwin
In Conversation with Melvin Rogers and Nina Revoyr
Brian DeShazor, host of From the Vault, KPFK 90.7 FM
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Live From the Vault: Rare Recordings of James Baldwin
In Conversation with Melvin Rogers and Nina Revoyr
Brian DeShazor, host of From the Vault, KPFK 90.7 FM
Thursday, July 14, 2016
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Preorder Available: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691219134/the-darkened-light-of-faith Could the African American political tradition save American democracy? African Americans have had every reason to doubt America’s... more
Preorder Available: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691219134/the-darkened-light-of-faith
Could the African American political tradition save American democracy? African Americans have had every reason to doubt America’s democratic experiment. Yet African American activists, intellectuals, and artists who have sought to transform the United States into a racially just society have put forward some of the most original and powerful ideas about how to make America live up to its democratic ideals. In The Darkened Light of Faith, Melvin Rogers provides a bold new account of African American political thought through the works and lives of individuals who built this vital tradition, which is urgently needed today.
The book reexamines how figures as diverse as David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, Billie Holiday, and James Baldwin thought about the politics, people, character, and culture of a society that so often dominated them. Sharing a light of faith darkened but not extinguished by the tragic legacy of slavery, they resisted the conclusion that America would always be committed to white supremacy. They believed that democracy is always in the process of becoming and that they could use it to reimagine society. But they also saw that achieving racial justice wouldn’t absolve us of the darkest features of our shared past, and that democracy must be measured by how skillfully we confront a history that will forever remain with us.
An ambitious account of the profound ways African Americans have reimagined democracy, The Darkened Light of Faith offers invaluable lessons about how to grapple with racial injustice and make democracy work.
Could the African American political tradition save American democracy? African Americans have had every reason to doubt America’s democratic experiment. Yet African American activists, intellectuals, and artists who have sought to transform the United States into a racially just society have put forward some of the most original and powerful ideas about how to make America live up to its democratic ideals. In The Darkened Light of Faith, Melvin Rogers provides a bold new account of African American political thought through the works and lives of individuals who built this vital tradition, which is urgently needed today.
The book reexamines how figures as diverse as David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, Billie Holiday, and James Baldwin thought about the politics, people, character, and culture of a society that so often dominated them. Sharing a light of faith darkened but not extinguished by the tragic legacy of slavery, they resisted the conclusion that America would always be committed to white supremacy. They believed that democracy is always in the process of becoming and that they could use it to reimagine society. But they also saw that achieving racial justice wouldn’t absolve us of the darkest features of our shared past, and that democracy must be measured by how skillfully we confront a history that will forever remain with us.
An ambitious account of the profound ways African Americans have reimagined democracy, The Darkened Light of Faith offers invaluable lessons about how to grapple with racial injustice and make democracy work.
Research Interests: Black Studies Or African American Studies, Philosophy, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Race and Racism, and 14 moreRalph Ellison, History of Political Thought, American Political Thought, Harlem Renaissance, Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, Africana Studies, James Baldwin, African-American Political Thought, Anna Julia Cooper, David Walker, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Alain Locke
University of Chicago Press https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo58172054.html African American Political Thought offers an unprecedented philosophical history of thinkers from the African American community and... more
University of Chicago Press
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo58172054.html
African American Political Thought offers an unprecedented philosophical history of thinkers from the African American community and African diaspora who have addressed the central issues of political life: democracy, race, violence, liberation, solidarity, and mass political action. Melvin L. Rogers and Jack Turner have brought together leading scholars to reflect on individual intellectuals from the past four centuries, developing their list with an expansive approach to political expression. The collected essays consider such figures as Martin Delany, Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lorde, whose works are addressed by scholars such as Farah Jasmin Griffin, Robert Gooding-Williams, Michael Dawson, Nick Bromell, Neil Roberts, and Lawrie Balfour.
While African American political thought is inextricable from the historical movement of American political thought, this volume stresses the individuality of Black thinkers, the transnational and diasporic consciousness, and how individual speakers and writers draw on various traditions simultaneously to broaden our conception of African American political ideas. This landmark volume gives us the opportunity to tap into the myriad and nuanced political theories central to Black life. In doing so, African American Political Thought: A Collected History transforms how we understand the past and future of political thinking in the West.
Table of Contents:
Political Theorizing in Black: An Introduction
Melvin L. Rogers and Jack Turner
1 Phillis Wheatley and the Rhetoric of Politics and Race
Vincent Carretta
2 David Walker: Citizenship, Judgment, Freedom, and Solidarity
Melvin L. Rogers
3 Martin Delany’s Two Principles, the Argument for Emigration, and Revolutionary Black Nationalism
Robert Gooding-Williams
4 Harriet Jacobs: Prisoner of Hope
Nick Bromell
5 Frederick Douglass: Nonsovereign Freedom and the Plurality of Political Resistance
Sharon R. Krause
6 Alexander Crummell’s Three Visions of Black Nationalism
Frank M. Kirkland
7 Booker T. Washington and the Politics of Deception
Desmond Jagmohan
8 Anna Julia Cooper: Radical Relationality and the Ethics of Interdependence
Carol Wayne White
9 Ida B. Wells on Racial Criminalization
Naomi Murakawa
10 W. E. B. Du Bois: Afro-modernism, Expressivism, and the Curse of Centrality
Paul C. Taylor
11 Marcus Garvey: The Black Prince?
Michael Dawson
12 A. Philip Randolph: Radicalizing Rights at the Intersection of Class and Race
Michael McCann
13 Zora Neale Hurston’s Radical Individualism
Farah Jasmine Griffin
14 George S. Schuyler: Post-Souls Satirist
Jeffrey B. Ferguson
15 C. L. R. James: Race, Revolution, and Black Liberation
Anthony Bogues
16 Langston Hughes’s Ambivalent Political Expressivism
Jason Frank
17 Thurgood Marshall: The Legacy and Limits of Equality under the Law
Daniel Moak
18 Richard Wright: Realizing the Promise of the West
Tommie Shelby
19 Bayard Rustin: Between Democratic Theory and Black Political Thought
George Shulman
20 Ralph Ellison: Democratic Theorist
Danielle Allen
21 James Baldwin: Democracy between Nihilism and Hope
John E. Drabinski
22 Malcolm X: Dispatches on Racial Cruelty
Nikhil Pal Singh
23 Martin Luther King: Strategist of Force
David L. Chappell
24 Toni Morrison and the Fugitives’ Democracy
Lawrie Balfour
25 Audre Lorde’s Politics of Difference
Jack Turner
26 Stokely Carmichael and the Longing for Black Liberation: Black Power and Beyond
Brandon M. Terry
27 Huey P. Newton and the Last Days of the Black Colony
Cedric G. Johnson
28 Angela Y. Davis: Abolitionism, Democracy, Freedom
Neil Roberts
29 Clarence Thomas: Race Pessimism and Black Capitalism
Corey Robin
30 Cornel West and the Black Prophetic Tradition
Mark D. Wood
Acknowledgments
Index
Contributors
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo58172054.html
African American Political Thought offers an unprecedented philosophical history of thinkers from the African American community and African diaspora who have addressed the central issues of political life: democracy, race, violence, liberation, solidarity, and mass political action. Melvin L. Rogers and Jack Turner have brought together leading scholars to reflect on individual intellectuals from the past four centuries, developing their list with an expansive approach to political expression. The collected essays consider such figures as Martin Delany, Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lorde, whose works are addressed by scholars such as Farah Jasmin Griffin, Robert Gooding-Williams, Michael Dawson, Nick Bromell, Neil Roberts, and Lawrie Balfour.
While African American political thought is inextricable from the historical movement of American political thought, this volume stresses the individuality of Black thinkers, the transnational and diasporic consciousness, and how individual speakers and writers draw on various traditions simultaneously to broaden our conception of African American political ideas. This landmark volume gives us the opportunity to tap into the myriad and nuanced political theories central to Black life. In doing so, African American Political Thought: A Collected History transforms how we understand the past and future of political thinking in the West.
Table of Contents:
Political Theorizing in Black: An Introduction
Melvin L. Rogers and Jack Turner
1 Phillis Wheatley and the Rhetoric of Politics and Race
Vincent Carretta
2 David Walker: Citizenship, Judgment, Freedom, and Solidarity
Melvin L. Rogers
3 Martin Delany’s Two Principles, the Argument for Emigration, and Revolutionary Black Nationalism
Robert Gooding-Williams
4 Harriet Jacobs: Prisoner of Hope
Nick Bromell
5 Frederick Douglass: Nonsovereign Freedom and the Plurality of Political Resistance
Sharon R. Krause
6 Alexander Crummell’s Three Visions of Black Nationalism
Frank M. Kirkland
7 Booker T. Washington and the Politics of Deception
Desmond Jagmohan
8 Anna Julia Cooper: Radical Relationality and the Ethics of Interdependence
Carol Wayne White
9 Ida B. Wells on Racial Criminalization
Naomi Murakawa
10 W. E. B. Du Bois: Afro-modernism, Expressivism, and the Curse of Centrality
Paul C. Taylor
11 Marcus Garvey: The Black Prince?
Michael Dawson
12 A. Philip Randolph: Radicalizing Rights at the Intersection of Class and Race
Michael McCann
13 Zora Neale Hurston’s Radical Individualism
Farah Jasmine Griffin
14 George S. Schuyler: Post-Souls Satirist
Jeffrey B. Ferguson
15 C. L. R. James: Race, Revolution, and Black Liberation
Anthony Bogues
16 Langston Hughes’s Ambivalent Political Expressivism
Jason Frank
17 Thurgood Marshall: The Legacy and Limits of Equality under the Law
Daniel Moak
18 Richard Wright: Realizing the Promise of the West
Tommie Shelby
19 Bayard Rustin: Between Democratic Theory and Black Political Thought
George Shulman
20 Ralph Ellison: Democratic Theorist
Danielle Allen
21 James Baldwin: Democracy between Nihilism and Hope
John E. Drabinski
22 Malcolm X: Dispatches on Racial Cruelty
Nikhil Pal Singh
23 Martin Luther King: Strategist of Force
David L. Chappell
24 Toni Morrison and the Fugitives’ Democracy
Lawrie Balfour
25 Audre Lorde’s Politics of Difference
Jack Turner
26 Stokely Carmichael and the Longing for Black Liberation: Black Power and Beyond
Brandon M. Terry
27 Huey P. Newton and the Last Days of the Black Colony
Cedric G. Johnson
28 Angela Y. Davis: Abolitionism, Democracy, Freedom
Neil Roberts
29 Clarence Thomas: Race Pessimism and Black Capitalism
Corey Robin
30 Cornel West and the Black Prophetic Tradition
Mark D. Wood
Acknowledgments
Index
Contributors
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New Edition of The Public and Its Problems, Ohio University Press. This will replace the current Swallow Press version. More than six decades after John Dewey’s death, his political philosophy is undergoing a revival. With renewed... more
New Edition of The Public and Its Problems, Ohio University Press. This will replace the current Swallow Press version.
More than six decades after John Dewey’s death, his political philosophy is undergoing a revival. With renewed interest in pragmatism and its implications for democracy in an age of mass communication, bureaucracy, and ever-increasing social complexities, Dewey’s The Public and Its Problems, first published in 1927, remains vital to any discussion of today’s political issues.
This edition of The Public and Its Problems, meticulously annotated and interpreted with fresh insight by Melvin L. Rogers, radically updates the previous version published by Swallow Press. Rogers’s introduction locates Dewey’s work within its philosophical and historical context and explains its key ideas for a contemporary readership. Biographical information and a detailed bibliography round out this definitive edition, which will be essential to students and scholars both.
More than six decades after John Dewey’s death, his political philosophy is undergoing a revival. With renewed interest in pragmatism and its implications for democracy in an age of mass communication, bureaucracy, and ever-increasing social complexities, Dewey’s The Public and Its Problems, first published in 1927, remains vital to any discussion of today’s political issues.
This edition of The Public and Its Problems, meticulously annotated and interpreted with fresh insight by Melvin L. Rogers, radically updates the previous version published by Swallow Press. Rogers’s introduction locates Dewey’s work within its philosophical and historical context and explains its key ideas for a contemporary readership. Biographical information and a detailed bibliography round out this definitive edition, which will be essential to students and scholars both.
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The Undiscovered Dewey explores the profound influence of evolution and its corresponding ideas of contingency and uncertainty on John Dewey's philosophy of action, particularly its argument that inquiry proceeds from the uncertainty of... more
The Undiscovered Dewey explores the profound influence of evolution and its corresponding ideas of contingency and uncertainty on John Dewey's philosophy of action, particularly its argument that inquiry proceeds from the uncertainty of human activity. Dewey separated the meaningfulness of inquiry from a larger metaphysical story concerning the certainty of human progress. He then connected this thread to the way in which our reflective capacities aid us in improving our lives. Dewey therefore launched a new understanding of the modern self that encouraged intervention in social and natural environments but which nonetheless demanded courage and humility because of the intimate relationship between action and uncertainty.
Melvin L. Rogers explicitly connects Dewey's theory of inquiry to his religious, moral, and political philosophy. He argues that, contrary to common belief, Dewey sought a place for religious commitment within a democratic society sensitive to modern pluralism. Against those who regard Dewey as indifferent to moral conflict, Rogers points to Dewey's appreciation for the incommensurability of our ethical commitments. His deep respect for modern pluralism, argues Rogers, led Dewey to articulate a negotiation between experts and the public so that power did not lapse into domination. Exhibiting an abiding faith in the reflective and contestable character of inquiry, Dewey strongly engaged with the complexity of our religious, moral, and political lives.
Melvin L. Rogers explicitly connects Dewey's theory of inquiry to his religious, moral, and political philosophy. He argues that, contrary to common belief, Dewey sought a place for religious commitment within a democratic society sensitive to modern pluralism. Against those who regard Dewey as indifferent to moral conflict, Rogers points to Dewey's appreciation for the incommensurability of our ethical commitments. His deep respect for modern pluralism, argues Rogers, led Dewey to articulate a negotiation between experts and the public so that power did not lapse into domination. Exhibiting an abiding faith in the reflective and contestable character of inquiry, Dewey strongly engaged with the complexity of our religious, moral, and political lives.
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Excerpt from The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought (Princeton University Press, 2023).
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An excerpt from Chapter 6 of The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought.
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Unedited conclusion to my book, The Darkened Light of Faith.
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... I would also like to thank Carol Puccino and Douglas Gunzler for a Herculean job of research and acquisi-tion. ... 1895 Booker T. Washington, in his Atlanta Exposition Address, lays out the philosophy that underlies his founding of... more
... I would also like to thank Carol Puccino and Douglas Gunzler for a Herculean job of research and acquisi-tion. ... 1895 Booker T. Washington, in his Atlanta Exposition Address, lays out the philosophy that underlies his founding of Tuskegee Institute. ...
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David Walker’s famous 1829 Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World expresses a puzzle at the very outset. What are we to make of the use of “Citizens” in the title given the denial of political rights to African Americans? This essay... more
David Walker’s famous 1829 Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World expresses a puzzle at the very outset. What are we to make of the use of “Citizens” in the title given the denial of political rights to African Americans? This essay argues that the pamphlet relies on the cultural and linguistic norms associated with the term appeal in order to call into existence the political standing of black folks. Walker’s use of citizen does not need to rely on a recognitive legal relationship precisely because it is the practice of judging that illuminates one’s political, indeed, citizenly standing. Properly understood, the Appeal aspires to transform blacks and whites, and when it informs the prophetic dimension of the text, it tilts the entire pamphlet in a democratic direction. This is the political power of the pamphlet; it exemplifies the call-and-response logic of democratic self-governance.
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Page 1. Melvin L. Rogers ... PHILOSOPHY & SOCIAL CRITICISM • vol 34 no 7 • pp. 799–824 Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) and David Rasmussen www.sagepublications.com DOI:... more
Page 1. Melvin L. Rogers ... PHILOSOPHY & SOCIAL CRITICISM • vol 34 no 7 • pp. 799–824 Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) and David Rasmussen www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/0191453708094728 Page 2. ...
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Protesters demonstrate outside of a burning Minneapolis Third Precinct building, Thursday, May 28, 2020. Image: John Minchillo / AP On Monday, George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, was murdered by those sworn to protect and serve. As... more
Protesters demonstrate outside of a burning Minneapolis Third Precinct building, Thursday, May 28, 2020. Image: John Minchillo / AP On Monday, George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, was murdered by those sworn to protect and serve. As Floyd pleaded for his life, a police officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck until his body lay lifeless. We know the image; we have heard the pleas for help, the appeals to show mercy. His death mirrors the recent killings of so many unarmed black men. As in other instances, Floyd's cries fell on deaf ears-the ears of the officer suffocating him and the three other officers who stood witness to the murder. His death is RACE We Should Be Afraid, But Not of Protesters The rage on display in Minneapolis is not only about police violence. It is also about the country's utter disregard for the pain of black Americans. MAY 30, 2020 MELVIN ROGERS
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My reflection on the art and politics of Black Panther that appeared in Dissent Magazine.
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Featured in Boston Review,
https://www.bostonreview.net/us/melvin-rogers-what-good-history-african-americans,
May 17, 2016
https://www.bostonreview.net/us/melvin-rogers-what-good-history-african-americans,
May 17, 2016
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Unedited comments provided at the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (2016)
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Fugitive Thoughts on Trump and the Crisis of Civility
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WORKING PAPER
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In this article I seek to elucidate the relationship between pragmatism and democratic faith through the writings of William James, John Dewey, and W. E. B. Du Bois. I advanced three claims, all of which when taken together, lays bare... more
In this article I seek to elucidate the relationship between pragmatism and democratic faith through the writings of William James, John Dewey, and W. E. B. Du Bois. I advanced three claims, all of which when taken together, lays bare the conceptual and political work pragmatism does for us and those in the tradition of American political thought. My argument here, though ambitious, is threefold: First, that James and Dewey provided an orientation toward the social world that emphasized the role of risk, uncertainty, and the necessity of faith, thus undercutting the traditional attribution of metaphysical optimism; second, that Dewey, in particular, tied these themes to a view of democracy that envisioned “the people” or community as a malleable social category in which new descriptions of political life might be invested; and third, that the framework provided by James and Dewey helps elucidate Du Bois’s engagement with his fellows in his classic work of 1903, The Souls of Black Folk, and redirect our attention to the specific resources (i.e. rhetoric and emotions) he believed necessary for shaping “the people.”
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A shorter version was picked up by The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/07/readers-critical-between-world-me-ta-nehisi-coates/399641/
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http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/toc/tae.17.3S.html Theory & Event's symposium on the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO edited by Melvin Lee Rogers and featuring Eddie S. Glaude, Vesla Weaver, Utz Mcknight, Tommy... more
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/toc/tae.17.3S.html
Theory & Event's symposium on the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO edited by Melvin Lee Rogers and featuring Eddie S. Glaude, Vesla Weaver, Utz Mcknight, Tommy Curry, Patchen Markell, Michelle Smith, Lisa L. Miller, and Steven Johnson. OPEN ACCESS FOR 3 MONTHS
Theory & Event's symposium on the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO edited by Melvin Lee Rogers and featuring Eddie S. Glaude, Vesla Weaver, Utz Mcknight, Tommy Curry, Patchen Markell, Michelle Smith, Lisa L. Miller, and Steven Johnson. OPEN ACCESS FOR 3 MONTHS
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Forthcoming: Collection of short essays on Ferguson and the death of Michael Brown, published by Theory & Event: Volume 17, Issue 3 Supplement. Authors include: Eddie Glaude, Steven Johnston, Vesla Weaver, Lisa Miller, Tommy Curry,... more
Forthcoming: Collection of short essays on Ferguson and the death of Michael Brown, published by Theory & Event: Volume 17, Issue 3 Supplement.
Authors include: Eddie Glaude, Steven Johnston, Vesla Weaver, Lisa Miller, Tommy Curry, Patchen Markell, Michelle Smith, Utz Lars McKnight, Dora Apel, Melvin Rogers
Authors include: Eddie Glaude, Steven Johnston, Vesla Weaver, Lisa Miller, Tommy Curry, Patchen Markell, Michelle Smith, Utz Lars McKnight, Dora Apel, Melvin Rogers
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... And finally, I extend my deepest appreciation to Theory and Event and its reviewers. MelvinRogers is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. ... He can be reached at melvin.rogers@yale.edu.... more
... And finally, I extend my deepest appreciation to Theory and Event and its reviewers. MelvinRogers is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. ... He can be reached at melvin.rogers@yale.edu. [Letter to the Editors]. ...
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Spring 2018 Grad Course
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Fall 2018 Course
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Fall Course Syllabus
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Undergraduate Honors Course
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Undergraduate Course
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May 15-16
Charles E. Young Research Library, Rm. 11360
UCLA
Charles E. Young Research Library, Rm. 11360
UCLA