AFRICANA STUDIES
Interpreting African-American Life and History
PENIEL E. JOSEPH
Title: Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, State University of New York-Stony Brook
Education: Ph.D., M.A.,
American History, Temple University; B.A., Africana Studies and B.A., European History, State University of New York-Stony Brook
Age: 34
As an undergraduate, Dr. Peniel E. Joseph had journalism aspirations. Although he chose an academic path instead, he is indeed living that dream of storytelling as well as feeding his lifelong curiosity about history.
Last year’s publication of his first book is proof of that. His narrative, Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour, has gained praise from The Washington Post and other major reviewers. Midnight Hour is a reassessment of the Black Power movement, examining iconic figures as well as little-known ones with a novelist’s eye for detail.
“He possesses the ability and the potential to become perhaps the single-most influential interpreter of African-American life and history of his generation,” says Dr. Manning A. Marable, a Columbia University professor of public affairs, history and African-American studies and one of the country’s leading political scholars. Marable calls Midnight Hour “the most outstanding narrative interpretation” of the Black Power movement ever produced.
