The black studies tradition and the mappings of our common intellectual project

The discipline commonly referred to as "Black Studies" carries various designations: Africana Studies, African-American Studies, African Diaspora Studies, etc. Moving the debate about names beyond the discourse of semantic preference, this article examines these various titles and argues that they are distinguishable by more than just nomenclature. The titles reflect three distinct geographical emphases that have come to characterize the Black Studies project: the national, regional and global. This article maps out these geographical emphases, and examines their implications for the discipline. It presents a critical interrogation of prominent texts used to define the national, regional and global distinctions, and demonstrates the contested nature of each by contrasting them with the works of other scholars. It also offers a way to think about the history of Black Studies that does not cater to the traditional political orientations that have historically splintered the Black Studies project.