Dear political science: tools for the study of black (life and) politics

With the invitation to reflect upon the founders of the Black politics subfield, this article considers the work of Cathy Cohen. I particularly focus on her essay "Deviance as Resistance: A New Research Agenda for the Study of Black Politics," 20 years after its publication in 2004. I ask: how can the Black politics subfield take up Cohen's charge to incorporate "deviant identities" into our research? Moreover, how can we destabilize political science's foundational modes of racialization and divert its inability to recognize the production of Black life and politics? With a review of the establishment of Black politics as a subfield, I assert that it is time to consider more expansive methodological approaches to recognize the lives and political practices of those on the margins of Black life. I turn to Black studies scholar Katherine McKittrick [2021. Dear Science and Other Stories. Durham, NC: Duke University Press] to consider how crossing disciplinary norms around methods of studying Blackness offers opportunities for innovation in the study of Black politics through creativity, relationships, and structural critiques. I argue that those who study Black politics might engage in the deployment of more "Black materials," or evidence of the productive motions of Black life and politics.