Dude, Where's My Black Studies Department?: The Disappearance of Black Americans from Our Universities Brochura - 2007

“One of the most significant contributions of Dude, Where’s My Black Studies Department? is what Brown teaches us about the African-American oral tradition, namely, about how its ‘difference’ from white American culture poses a constant challenge, and threat, to the ideal of integration in the classroom and on campus.”
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, editor-in-chief at the Oxford African American Studies Center

"Cecil Brown is one of the most gifted writers and brilliant intellectuals of his generation. His provocative analyses of contemporary black and American culture brims with insight. Unafraid to be controversial or to go against the grain, Brown never fails to make us think."
—Michael Eric Dyson, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of Debating Race

“Some of the severest criticisms of African-American culture are being issued on op-ed pages and in books written by Caribbean-Americans. Are some Caribbean-Americans being used as pawns in an attack on African-Americans? Have some of them been awarded honorary "white" status as a reward? How does this conflict play out in academia? Writer Cecil Brown is one of the few African-American public intellectuals with the nerve to tackle this subject and he does so with his usual wit, savvy, and brilliance.”
—Ishmael Reed, author of Mumbo Jumbo and Airing Dirty Laundry

Cecil Brown holds a PhD in African-American Literature, Folklore, and Theory of Narrative from the University of California, Berkeley. He has published a number of novels, short stories, screenplays, and journal articles relating to African-American literature and life, and has taught classes in literature and popular culture at UC Berkeley, the University of San Francisco, and other universities throughout California.