In the aftermath of protests against police brutality in 2020, professional sociological organizations revisited the discipline's history of epistemic exclusion. Building upon the extant literature that has been produced on this topic, these organizations addressed the need to eradicate the long history of epistemological segregation that has separated the intellectual contributions developed by Black scholars from those developed by White scholars. Further, these organizations discussed the consequences of privileging the contributions of men and suppressing the contributions of women. This current examination of the sociological canon has provided a critical moment to amplify the contributions of early Black women sociologists.

In this lecture, Dr. Ashley Stone will center on the intellectual contributions of two Black women who produced scholarship in sociology's classical period - Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Using data collected from her recent research project, she will discuss the diffusion of Black women's scholarship into sociology curricula by investigating the causes that facilitate the inclusion and exclusion of their work. Dr. Stone will also examine how the scholarship of Cooper and Wells-Barnett provided critical early analyses of race and gender in U.S. society. Additionally, she will explore how their scholarship addressed centrally important social issues and have broader applicability in the analysis of contemporary society. Taken together, Dr. Stone posits that Cooper's and Wells-Barnett's scholarship warrant their inclusion in the sociological canon, and therefore, should be substantively incorporated into graduate-level sociology curricula.