Tommie Shelby

Tommie Shelby is a noted American philosopher and professor of African and African American Studies. He is particularly known for his work in Africana Philosophy, social/political philosophy, social theory (especially Marxist theory), and philosophy of social science.

Education and career

Shelby earned his B.A. from Florida A&M University (1990) and PhD in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh (1998) with a certificate in Cultural Studies. He wrote a dissertation titled "Marxism and the Critique of Moral Ideology," directed by David Gauthier. Before moving to Harvard in 2000, he was assistant professor of philosophy at the Ohio State University 1996-2000. Currently Shelby is Professor of African and African American Studies and Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. He was the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard 2004-2007. Shelby is the second black scholar to be tenured in the Philosophy Department at Harvard. The first was Kwame Anthony Appiah, now a professor at New York University. He currently serves as an editor of Transition Magazine and of the DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race.

Research areas and publications

Shelby is the author of We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity (Harvard University Press, 2005).[1] The book discusses the history of black political thought from Martin Delany to Malcolm X and extrapolates a new theory for black political solidarity consistent with liberal values of individual liberty, social equality, and cultural tolerance. Orlando Patterson says of the book, "[Shelby's] book contests the movement's central claims at a level of sociophilosophical sophistication that one rarely encounters."[2] Bill Lawson, in his review of Shelby's book, describes it as a "provocative and insightful book." He continues, "Professor Shelby has done a great service to both philosophical and historical academic studies. He has in clear and lucid terms presented the basic assumptions underlying Black Nationalism, the collective-identity thesis, and interracial and intra-racial coalitions in the fight for social justice. What makes this book worth reading beyond the scholarship and its scholarly insights is Professor Shelby's attempt to move Black Nationalism into the post-civil rights era."[3]

Shelby is also the co-editor of 'Hip-Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason[4] with Derrick Darby. In his review of the book, Tommy J. Curry says that it is "...a great work that inhabits the tension between the sterile thought of the academy and the rich lives of many young urban Americans."[5] Shelby has also co-edited Transition 99[6] with Henry Louis Gates Jr., K. Anthony Appiah and F. Abiola Irele, and is the author of the entry on Black Nationalism in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy On-Line.

Shelby is the son-in-law of Harvard philosopher Thomas Scanlon.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tommie Shelby (2005). We Who Are Dark. Harvard University Press.
  2. ↑ Patterson, Orlando (8 January 2006). "Being and Blackness". New York Times.
  3. ↑ Lawson, Bill (4 June 2006). "We Who Are Dark (Review)". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
  4. ↑ Tommie Shelby (2005). Hip-Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason. Open Court.
  5. ↑ Curry, Tommy J. (2006). "Review of Hip Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason". Kinesis 33(2).
  6. ↑ Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Kwame Anthony Appiah, Tommie Shelby, F. Abiola Irele, (2007). Transition 99. Soft Skull Press.

External links