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Abstract

What constitutes a ‘field’ in Black studies? In 1905, W.E.B. DuBois suggested that Black studies look to physics’ treatment of discrete/continuous duality to conceptualize double consciousness. Physicists describe fields as sets of adjectives wherein a relation between descriptions is indexed and how that framework moves across a field, the extent to which that relation translates across positions, becomes the ‘object’ of study. ‘Study’ analyzes how those object-relations operate. Scholars identify the reduction of blackness to singular ‘things’ to study as a point of intellectual crisis. Since the relationship between features of Black experience coheres in entities across various fields, Black studies is inherently interdisciplinary, calling disciplinary sovereignty into question. What formalizations of Black studies manipulate conditions wherein what it seeks may cohere in the entities that arise? How do we integrate the changes we seek over a path summing multiple histories?

Keywords

field theory diaspora Black studies cultural studies infrastructure

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