Applied Africana Studies

Abstract

The current intellectual and political climate dictates a need for an empirically driven trajectory for the discipline of African American studies. An African-centered worldview in concert with a theoretical research framework to guide Africana studies scholars’ use of social science research methods is what is presented in this work. In the 21st century, the unique interests of African-descended people are best served by the empirical approach, specifically when legislative bodies and social service providers require data-based solutions to social problems. Applied Africana Studies is a theoretical framework that guides the production of scholarship that is both centered and relevant to the needs and interests of people of African descent. In some quarters, the empirical method is dismissed because of its disproportionate use by non-African researchers and their politically driven agendas against the interests of African people. To address this, the training of African-centered empirical practitioners who hold the terminal degree in African American studies is an absolute imperative to advance African development on African terms in the 21st century.