PAUL GILROY
Paul Gilroy, Professor of Sociology at Goldsmith's College of The University
of London, has
contributed a great deal to African diasporic intellectual and political
exchange. He is the author of
"There Ain't No Black In The Union Jack", "Small Acts: Thoughts
On The Politics of Black Cultures", and "The Black Atlantic: Modernity
and Double Consciousness." Gilroy insists on attending to the material
conditions of Black people and the ways in which Black people have defaced
the "clean edifice of white supremacy." Gilroy's writing, like
that of Cornel West, maintains a strong ethical core in an historical moment
in which ethics are freqeuntly displaced by the glamour of elegant post-structuralist
theory.
As a DJ and music journalist, Gilroy's work remains close to the sites of
Black popular cultural production. His suspicion towards the practice of
understanding Black music as series of "texts" to be appropriated
in the service of academic pedantry has resulted in a new critical language
which
addresses the complexities of Black music in a way that eclipses the discourses
of filmic and literary theory, fields of knowledge which often prove insufficent
when "applied" to music. Prof. Gilroy is currently working on
a book on bio-politics, revolutionary conservatism, and facism.
(thanks to Prof. Gilroy for providing a substantial portion of the bibliography)
Back to Black Cultural Studies Web Site Front
Page