Sociology is living through an epistemological and ethical reckoning. At the center of this intellectual uprising is William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. Although long silenced by the discipline’s racist and colonial logics, generations of Black and other critical scholars have ushered a return to, and recovery of, Du Bois’s sociological thought and work. Rather than focusing on his empirical and theoretical contributions to sociology, The Du Boisian Challenge instead grapples with Du Boisian questions of methodology and methods—the intellectual frameworks and normative orientations that guide the questions we pursue, the way we organize and conduct our research, and how we conceive the relationship between theory and data, scholarship and society. Drawing inspiration from Du Bois’s evolving research program, this volume enlists Du Boisian sociologists to reflect on the methodological sensibilities, practices, and commitments that have informed their diverse analyses of racialized modernity and colonial capitalism. These contributors offer indispensable insights to the ongoing conversation about the methodological foundations and potential of contemporary Du Boisian sociology.

José Itzigsohn is Professor of Sociology at Brown University.

Ricarda Hammer is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The Du Boisian Challenge will be a key text that scholars across the arts, humanities, and social sciences will rely upon for decades to come. The editors have crafted not only a wonderful introduction to Du Boisian methodologies, but also have brought together a brilliant series of pieces from excellent contributors. An important achievement.”
-- Ali Meghji, author of Along the Colorline: Du Boisian Sociology Beyond Du Bois