A New Notebook on ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

Back in 2018, I produced a series of posts related to African American literary studies using dissertations and theses from ProQuest. Now, eight years later, I'm taking a look again with a few blog posts and a podcast episode on the subject.

• Dissertation Citations for Six Black Women Writers, 1970–2026

• From Nine Citations to Thousands: Toni Morrison in Dissertation Research

• Amiri Baraka and Dissertations

Podcast episode 

• Toni Morrison's Nine Mentions to Thousands

Related:

• A Notebook on ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (2018)

Amiri Baraka and Dissertations

Using the ProQuest One Literature Dissertations & Theses database, I took a look at references to Amiri Baraka / LeRoi Jones across five decades (1964–2026) and found a clear pattern of rising and then slightly tapering scholarly attention.

Here's a look at the tallies by years and decades:

1964 – 1969: 15

1970 – 1979: 171
1980 – 1989: 131
1990 – 1999: 336
2000 – 2009: 625
2010 – 2019: 494
2020 – 2026: 219

As the numbers reveal, interest in Baraka picked up steadily over the decades, reaching a peak during the 2000s. As a poet, essayist, cultural critic, and leading figure of the Black Arts Movement, Baraka was particularly active and visible in public realms during the 1970s. However, the scholarly interest, at least in terms of dissertations and theses, lagged behind that period of public prominence.

Taken together, the 2000s and 2010s constituted the height of interest in Baraka studies. That’s when we see the largest number of entries on him.

Notably, the slight dip in the 2010s, compared to the 2000s, and the seeming decline in the 2020s, suggest a shift rather than a disappearance of interest. It may be that it is difficult for even major literary figures, particularly those who aren't novelists, to remain at high levels of citation over consecutive decades.  

Moving forward, one useful direction would be to chart some of Baraka's co-citations, that is, poets, theorists, and even movements that appear alongside him in dissertations and theses. That kind of mapping could reveal how his work continues to circulate within and across various scholarly networks.

Related:

• A New Notebook on ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

Rethinking the “Literature as History” Frame in African American Fiction

By Jeremiah Carter

Black readers often enter an introductory African American literary studies course expecting to learn more about Black history, and that expectation can place instructors and texts in the position of redirecting attention toward the imaginative, formal, and aesthetic dimensions of the field.

I wanted to test whether the Literary Navigator Device might clarify the basis, and the limits, of this expectation concerning history and literary production. I began by selecting “Novel” as the reading form and “21st century” as the period of publication, maintaining these filters throughout the search. The Navigator yields 932 contemporary novels by Black writers.

Next, I selected “Historical fiction” as the genre, which yielded 57 titles. After clearing that genre filter, I selected “Neo-slave narrative,” which produced 18 results. These results suggest that while historically oriented narratives remain visible and influential, they constitute a relatively small portion of contemporary Black fiction.

The expectation that African American literature primarily revisits the past reflects a narrow slice of the field rather than its full range. The Literary Navigator Device makes it possible to see that a much larger number of novels fall outside of a literature-as-history framework.

Related: 

• Navigator Discoveries

Writing Black Panther (Trailer 3)

Writing Black Panther traces Ta-Nehisi Coates's presence in comic books from 2015-2023, focusing on his contributions as the writer for Black Panther. His ambitious 50-issue run of the Marvel comic coincided with ongoing and multifaceted debates concerning diversity and inclusion – what we might call representation struggles – at a key moment in the history of comics with respect to Black writers. 

   

Related:
• A Notebook on Black Panther
• Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther: Podcast and Video Series 

• The Black Panther Digital Project

• Writing Black Panther (Trailer 2)

• Writing Black Panther (Trailer 1)

Writing Black Panther (Trailer 2)

A timely look at contemporary African American creative works through the lens of Ta-Nehisi Coates's ground-breaking entry into the comic book industry.

 

Related:
• A Notebook on Black Panther
• Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther: Podcast and Video Series 

• The Black Panther Digital Project

Black Panther Covers & Variants

• Black Panther Prints, Reprints, and Variants 

• The Black Panther #1 Variant Covers 

• A roundup of 25 Covers for Black Panther #1 

• List of Black Panther variants and artists

Related:

• A Notebook on Black Panther  

• The Black Panther Digital Project 

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther: Podcast and Video Series

Here's a roundup of podcast episodes related to Ta-Nehisi Coates and his run on Black Panther. 

Audio

• Novelizing Black Panther

• Star Wars for Black People 

• Ta-Nehisi Coates and Representation Struggles 

• The Case for Coates as a Comic Book Writer

• Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Midnight Angels

• Announcing Ta-Nehisi Coates as a Marvel writer 

• A New Map of Wakanda

• Ta-Nehisi Coates's Three Best-selling Comics 

• The Trouble with Leading Writer on Race Coverage

Video

• Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Three best-selling comic books

• Writing Black Panther (Trailer 3)

• Writing Black Panther (Trailer 2)

• Writing Black Panther (Trailer 1)

Related:

• A Notebook on Black Panther  

• The Black Panther Digital Project

Writing Black Panther (Trailer 1)

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and the first appearance of T'Challa (Black Panther) in comics. As it turns out, Writing Black Panther, a book about Ta-Nehisi Coates's run on the comic, appears in May 2026.

Related

• A Notebook on Black Panther
• Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther: Podcast and Video Series 

• Writing Black Panther (Trailer 3)

• Writing Black Panther (Trailer 2)