In this book Mahamadou Lamine Sagna offers a masterful portrait of Cornel West as scholar, activist, and man of faith. He does so through a careful reading of West’s writings and his unique dialectic approach to understanding politics, democracy, religion and race in America. He also explores the way West brings religion and music—particularly blues and jazz—into philosophy.

First published in English translation in 2019, Cornel West Matters received limited distribution in North America. This second edition, published by WPI Press, ensures that Sagna’s important and timely study will find a new audience at a time when West's rebellious thoughts again have global resonance, especially in an age when race and violence have come to define modern life.

Mahamadou Lamine Sagna is Associate Professor of Sociology and the inaugural director of the Africana Studies program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is also an associate researcher at the Laboratory for Social and Political Change (LSCP) at the University of Paris-Diderot. In addition to a PhD in Sociology, Sagna has degrees in Business and Ethnopsychiatry. Before coming to WPI, he taught at Princeton University and the American University of Nigeria. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, Sagna is a dedicated public intellectual who uses his voice to overcome injustice—especially in his home country of Senegal, where he has used his knowledge and experience to promote ethics and social justice.