bell hooks
Also known as Gloria Jean Watkins
American writer and cultural critic (1952 to 2021) on race, feminism and class.
At a glance
Main ideas
Intersection, Against white feminist racism, Engaged pedagogy …
See all 4Books to start with
Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, Teaching to Transgress …
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Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire and 2 others
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Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- bell hooks, born Gloria Jean Watkins, was a writer, educator and social critic whose work explored how race, capitalism and gender intersect.
- She wrote her pen name, borrowed from her great-grandmother, in lower case.
- Her first major book, Ain't I a Woman (1981), became a landmark of feminist thought.
- She published more than 30 books, on topics from love and masculinity to teaching, and was Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College.
Why it matters
- Her work on the intersection of race and gender, and on teaching as the practice of freedom, remains widely read and taught.
Key facts
- Born
- 25 Sep 1952, Hopkinsville, Kentucky1
- Died
- 15 Dec 2021, at her home in Berea, Kentucky, of kidney failure, aged 691
- Education
- PhD in literature, University of California, Santa Cruz (1983), on Toni Morrison1
- Teaching
- USC from 1976; Yale from 1985 to 1988; Oberlin from 1988 to 1994; City College of New York from 1994; Berea College from 20041
- Founded
- The bell hooks Institute at Berea College, in 20141
- Honours
- Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame (2018); TIME's 100 Women of the Year (2020)1
- Books
- More than 301
Main ideas
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Intersection1
Race, capitalism and gender interlock to produce systems of oppression.
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Against white feminist racism1
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center argued that racism in second-wave feminism undermined solidarity.
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Engaged pedagogy1
Teaching should make theory accessible across class boundaries.
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A love ethic1
Love, drawing on Buddhist thought, became central to her work and activism.
Books to start with
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Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism1
Racism and sexism in Black women's lives.
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Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center1
A critique of racism in feminism.
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Teaching to Transgress1
Education as the practice of freedom.
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Bone Black1
A memoir of girlhood.
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All About Love1
Returned to the New York Times bestseller list in 2020.
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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