Twenty-seven essays previously published in the Western Journal of Black Studies challenge assumptions, misconceptions, and negative stereotypes within academic fields, and portray the strength, resilience, and diversity of African and African American peoples.

There is an ongoing debate as to whether African American Studies is a discipline, or multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary field. Some scholars assert that African American Studies use a well-defined common approach in examining history, politics, and the family in the same way as scholars in the disciplines of economics, sociology, and political science. Other scholars consider African American Studies multidisciplinary, a field somewhat comparable to the field of education in which scholars employ a variety of disciplinary lenses-be they anthropological, psychological, historical, etc., --to study the African world experience. In this model the boundaries between traditional disciplines are accepted, and researches in African American Studies simply conduct discipline based an analysis of particular topics. Finally, another group of scholars insists that African American Studies is interdisciplinary, an enterprise that generates distinctive analyses by combining perspectives from d

Muzorewa is chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania. He is also the author of "The Origins and Development of African Theology" and "The Great Being: Yahweh, Chuku, Allah, God, Brahman."

Explore the enduring influence of the Western – the quintessential American film genre – and its essential role in US and world culture. Follow the entire history of the Western, from its roots in the pulp novels of the early 20th century, through the serials of the silent era and the mid-century classics of John Ford and John Wayne, to the recent award-winning revisionist works, like Unforgiven and No Country for Old Men, that provide a more complex and nuanced take on history of the West. Perhaps more than any other pop culture genre, the Western allows us to view how Americans have seen themselves over the last 150 years. Build a foundational understanding of the genre with 5 introductory essays, exploring the development of the Western Mythos in the traditional Western, the heyday of the traditional Western in the post-WWII period, revisionist Westerns and the counterculture, race and identify, and the Western outside of the USA. Close to 100 encyclopedia entries examine one or more movies or television programs and show how their creation and plots demonstrate the overall evolution of the genre. Easily compare films and TV programs – from early genre favorites such as Gunsmoke to more recent releases like Django Unchained – with essential facts boxes accompanying each entry, with information on the director, studio, key actors, and box office receipts.

The introduction of 'Black' studies programs into institutions of higher education was a direct response to the mandate for change at all levels that characterized the civil rights movement and the social rebellions of the 1950s and 1960s. In Out of the Revolution, Delores P. Aldridge and Carlene Young collect thirty-one of the nation's top scholars to provide a complete reference for understanding the impetus for, the development of, and future considerations for the discipline of 'Africana' studies. Topics addressed include epistemological considerations; humanistic perspectives; the role of bureaucracy and the academic institution; the social, psychological, political, and economic dimensions; the position of black women in the field; and how the discipline has empowered the black student. This invaluable resource for educators and students alike concludes with a look at graduates in Africana studies and their careers and a discussion of the future of the field.