For episode 2 of the Social Theory Podcast I spoke to Dr Lisa Long about the monumentally important sociologist and activist WEB Du Bois. We had a really good chat about his work and its importance for sociology but it was also interesting to hear Lisa's take on his significance for criminology. It is hard to overstate what an incredible figure Du Bois was and we try to get our head around the range and importance of his insights, his mastery of, and innovation in, a range of research methods. We also try to highlight what he can tell us about racism today and what it means for how we do sociology and criminology and how university education should be structured to include black representation in all its forms.

See the end of this post for links to the podcast.

A great resource to for Du Bois's texts (and many other works out of copyright) is Project Gutenberg

But one of his most important works, The Philadelphia Negro, isn't there although it is available on the Internet Archive

We spent a lot of time talking about The Souls of Black Folk

In the episode we touch on the significance of his essay 'The Souls of White Folk' which is part of his book Darkwater

Lisa mentioned the Free Black University initiative which perhaps come out of a similar critique of the opportunities for progression for Black people in mainstream white educational institutions

You can follow Chris on Twitter @chrishtill and read more on the podcast on his blog at thisisnotasociology.blog

Theme music is Wirklich Wichtig by Checkie Brown and incidental music is Disco Stomp by Jonas78 both used on a Creative Commons license