Dr. Toure Reed
Professor
Dean of Arts and Sciences
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Research
Biography
Dr. Reed earned his BA in American Studies from Hampshire College (Amherst, MA), and his PhD in History from Columbia University (New York, NY). He is a fourth generation African American educator and third generation professor. Having spent his formative years in South West Atlanta, GA and New Haven, CT, Dr. Reed's research interests center on race, class, and inequality. In addition to being a historian of African American and 20th Century US History, Dr. Reed is a shred guitar enthusiast.
Current Courses
309.001Selected Topics In United States History
258.001Afro-American History Since 1865
499.007Independent Research For The Master's Thesis
400.003Independent Study
300.001Senior Seminar In History
291.007Undergraduate Teaching Experience In History
Teaching Interests & Areas
Professor Reed's courses center on black social, political, and intellectual history. His courses draw from US urban and labor history.
Research Interests & Areas
Professor Reed's research projects focus principally on the impact of race and class ideologies on African American civil rights politics and US public policy from the Progressive Era through the Presidency of Barack Obama. Dr. Reed is the author of Not Alms But Opportunity: The Urban League and the Politics of Racial Uplift, 1910-1950 (UNC Chapel Hill Press, 2008) and Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism (Verso Books, 2020). He is also co-author of Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of Black American Thought (Paradigm Publishers, 2009 hardcover, 2010 paperback). Professor Reed's articles have appeared in the Journal of American Ethnic History, LABOR, nonsite.org, Catalyst, Blackagendareport.com, Commondreams.org, Dissent Magazine, Jacobin, the Nation, and The New Republic.
Dr. Reed is currently engaged in research for two monographs. Menace II Equality: How the Entertainment Industry Sold Reaganism to African Americans and New Deal Civil Rights: Class Consciousness and the Quest for Racial Equality, 1933-1948.
Dr. Reed has received numerous grants and fellowships including the prestigious Kluge Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Library of Congress in support of New Deal Civil Rights.
Ph D History
Columbia University
New York, NY
M Phil History
Columbia University
New York, NY
MA History
Columbia University
New York, NY
BA American Studies
Hampshire College
Amherst, MA
Influential and Inspirational Profesor
History-Social Sciences Education Program
2021
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History-Social Sciences Education Program
2021
Impact Award
Illinois State University, Office of the Provost and University College
2021
Outstanding College Researcher in the Humanities
Illinois State University
2020
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History-Social Sciences Education Program
2019
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2019
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2018
Impact Award
Illinois State University, Office of the Provost and University College
2018
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2016
Influential and Inspirational Faculty
History Department
2016
Book Review
Keneshia Grant, The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century, Spring 2021, Journal of Urban Affairs
Glenn Feldman, ed. Nation within a Nation: The American South and the Federal Government, Spring 2018, Florida Historical Quarterly
Martin Kilson, The Transformation of the African American Intelligentsia, 1880-2012, June 2015, Journal of American History
Erik S. Gellman, Death Blow to Jim Crow: The National Negro Congress, February 2014, Journal of Southern History
Gordon Mantler, Power to the Poor: Black-Brown Coalition and the Fight for Economic Justice, 1960-1974, Spring 2014, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
Book, Authored
Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Verso Books, 2020, (paperback and digital), https://www.versobooks.com/books/3166-toward-freedom
Coauthor/Contributor-- Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of African American Thought. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2009 (Paperback 2010), https://www.routledge.com/Renewing-Black-Intellectual-History-The-Ideological-and-Material-Foundations/Reed-Warren/p/book/9781594516665
Not Alms But Opportunity: The Urban League and the Politics of Racial Uplift, 1910-1950. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2008 (Hardcover/Paperback), https://uncpress.org/book/9780807859025/not-alms-but-opportunity/
Book, Chapter
“El excepcionalismo negro y la capitulación militante ante la desigualdad económica,” in Las Panteras Negras Ya No Pueden Salvarnos: Sobre excepcionalismo negro, violencia policial y politicas de la identidad, Libros Corrientes, 2020. Reprint of “Black Exceptionalism and the Militant Capitulation to Economic Inequality,” New Politics Vol. 17, No. 2 (Winter 2019)
“The Educational Alliance and the Urban League of New York: Ethnic Elites and the Politics of Americanization and Racial Uplift, 1903-1931,” 95-125 in Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of African American Thought, Paradigm Publishers, 2009
Encyclopedia
“W.E.B. DuBois and the Philadelphia Negro,” in the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies, ed. Anthony Orum, 2019
Journal Article
“The Evolution of ‘Race’ and Racial Justice Under Neoliberalism,” coauthored with Adolph L. Reed, Jr., in Greg Albo, Leo Panitch, and Colin Leys eds. The Socialist Register 2022: New Polarizations, Old Crisis of Centrism. The Crisis Centrism, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2021, pp. 113-134, https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv
“Black Exceptionalism and the Militant Capitulation to Economic Inequality,” Symposium on Cedric G. Johnson’s “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now: Anti-Policing Struggles and the Limits of Black Power,” New Politics, Vo 17, No. 2 (Winter 2019):
8-11, https://newpol.org/authors/rred-toure-f/
8-11, https://newpol.org/authors/rred-toure-f/
“Granger’s ‘Challenge to the Youth,’ Stein’s Challenge to Historians: Industrial
Democracy and the Complexities of Black Politics”
in Symposium in Honor of Judith Stein, nonsite.org, No. 29 (Fall 2019),
https://nonsite.org/grangers-challenge-to-the-youth-steins-challenge-to-historians-industrial-democracy-and-the-complexities-of-black-politics/
Democracy and the Complexities of Black Politics”
in Symposium in Honor of Judith Stein, nonsite.org, No. 29 (Fall 2019),
https://nonsite.org/grangers-challenge-to-the-youth-steins-challenge-to-historians-industrial-democracy-and-the-complexities-of-black-politics/
“Between Obama and Coates,” Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Winter 2018): 8-54,
https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no4/between-obama-and-coates
https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no4/between-obama-and-coates
“All Roads Named Culture of Poverty Lead to Mass Incarceration,” Symposium on Elizabeth Hinton’s From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime, LABOR: Studies in Working Class History in the Americas. Vol. 14, No. 4 (Winter 2017): 75-79
Magazine/Trade Publication
“The Political Economy of Racial Inequality,” Dissent Magazine, symposium on race and inequality titled “Arguments on the Left” Summer 2021, https://www.dissentmagazine.org/issue/summer-2021
"A Liberal ‘Moral Reckoning’ Can’t Solve the Problems that Plague Black America,” JacobinMag.com, 11/1/20, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/sanders-race-black-working-class-ta-nehisi-coates
"The Dangers of Letting Racecraft Displace Class During the Pandemic.” JacobinMag.com, 8/13/20, https://jacobinmag.com/2020/08/race-neoliberallism-covid-19-class-struggle
“Jess La Bombalera and the Pathologies of Racial Authenticity,” JacobinMag.com, 9/6/20, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/09/jess-la-bombalera-and-the-pathologies-of-racial-authenticity
“Why I’m Still Thinking about the Amy Cooper ‘Black Birder’ Episode in Central Park” JacobinMag.com, 6/4/20, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/christian-cooper-amy-central-park-racism-black-birder
Presentations
Panel: “Abbey Speaker Series: Defining Racial Justice in the 21st Century—Competing Perspectives on Shared Goals,” Moderated by Jamelle Bouie, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Program for Public Discourse, 2/23/21
https://publicdiscourse.web.unc.edu/events/defining-racial-justice-in-the-twenty-first-century-competing-perspectives-and-shared-goals/
https://publicdiscourse.web.unc.edu/events/defining-racial-justice-in-the-twenty-first-century-competing-perspectives-and-shared-goals/
Panel: “The Anti-Labor Radicalism of the 21st Century: A Conversation with Zine Magubane, Touré Reed, and Adolph Reed,” Moderated by Cedrick-Michael Simmons, sponsored jointly by Ithaca College and SEIU Local 200, 5/14/21, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwCSs0T5Tbk&t=675s
Panel: “What is the Democratic Commons?” Hunter College Conference on the Public Humanities and the Democratic Commons sponsored by the Mellon Foundation
Presentation: “The Dangers Posed by Identity Politics to Racial Justice and the Public Good,” 4/9/21
Presentation: “The Dangers Posed by Identity Politics to Racial Justice and the Public Good,” 4/9/21
Round Table: “Social Democracy in New York and the Nation,” with Joel Suarez, Nelson Lichtenstein, Ruth Milkman, Conference on Working-Class New York Revisited, sponsored by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, 4/23/21
https://slu.cuny.edu/public-engagement/conferences/
https://slu.cuny.edu/public-engagement/conferences/
“Ethnic Essentialism and Symbolism are Poor Substitutes for Material Equality,” presented at the conference “Revisiting Black Irish Relations and Responding to a Transnational Movement,” sponsored by New York University’s Glucksman Ireland House and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, 11/19/21
“The Pitfalls of Woke Neoliberalism: The Conservative Implications of Liberal Race Reductionism,” Ted Rose Speaker Series at Ohio University, 3/18/21 (Invited), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrvWwtqLgQE
"Toward Freedom, A Discussion of Race and Class with Professor Touré Reed," Democratic Socialists of America-Austin, Texas, 7/9/20, https://austindsa.org/
"Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism," by Touré F. Reed, The Labor and Working Class History Association’s Pandemic Book Talk Series, 10/15/20,
http://www.lawcha.org/event/lawcha-pandemic-book-talk-toure-reed-toward-freedom-the-case-against-race-reductionism/
http://www.lawcha.org/event/lawcha-pandemic-book-talk-toure-reed-toward-freedom-the-case-against-race-reductionism/
“The Pitfalls of Liberal Antiracism and Woke Neoliberalism,” a lecture on Toward
Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Jacobin Magazine’s, Stay at Home #12,
4/7/20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FztmNrp08yY
Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Jacobin Magazine’s, Stay at Home #12,
4/7/20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FztmNrp08yY
“The Pitfalls of Woke Neoliberalism,” a lecture on Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism," delivered to the Sociology Colloquium on Race and Race Relations at the University of California, Riverside, 11/19/20 (invited)
Grants & Contracts
Kluge Center, Postdoctoral Fellowship. Library of Congress. Federal. (2011)
Kluge Center, Postdoctoral Fellowship. Library of Congress. Federal. (2010)
Summer Faculty Fellowship. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2009)
Faculty Research Award. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2008)
Provost Incentive Award. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2003)
2017-06-23T13:52:52.264-05:00
2017