hooks, bell, 1952-2021

bell hooks (nee Gloria Wakins) was born in Hopkinsville (Ky.) in 1952. She earned a B. A. from Stanford University in 1973, a M. A. in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of California-Santa Cruz. A feminist thinker, her writings cover a broad range of topics. hooks is the Distinguished Professor of English at City College in New York. (Information from the internet site http://www.education.miami.edu/ep/contemporaryed/Bell hooks/bell hooks.html.)

Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks,[1] was an American author and social activist who was Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She is best known for her writings on race, feminism, and class.[2][3] The focus of hooks's writing was to explore the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination. She published around 40 books, including works that ranged from essays and poetry to children's books. She published numerous scholarly articles, appeared in documentary films, and participated in public lectures. Her work addressed love, race, class, gender, art, history, sexuality, mass media, and feminism.[4]

She began her academic career in 1976 teaching English and ethnic studies at the University of Southern California. She later taught at several institutions including Stanford University, Yale University, and The City College of New York, before joining Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, in 2004,[5] where she founded the bell hooks Institute in 2014.[6] Her pen name was borrowed from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks.[7]

Gloria Jean Watkins was born on September 25, 1952, in Hopkinsville,[8] a small, segregated town in Kentucky,[9] to a working-class African-American family. Watkins was one of six children born to Rosa Bell Watkins (née Oldham) and Veodis Watkins.[4] She graduated from Hopkinsville High School before obtaining her BA in English from Stanford University in 1973,[13] and her MA in English from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1976.[14] During this time, Watkins was writing her book Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which she began at the age of 19 (c. 1971)[15] and then published in 1981.[3]

In 1983, after several years of teaching and writing, she completed her doctorate in English at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a dissertation on author Toni Morrison entitled "Keeping a Hold on Life: Reading Toni Morrison's Fiction."[16][17]

She began her academic career in 1976 as an English professor and senior lecturer in ethnic studies at the University of Southern California.
In the early 1980s and 1990s, hooks taught at several post-secondary institutions, including the University of California, Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University, Yale (1985 to 1988, as assistant professor of African and Afro-American studies and English),[23] Oberlin College (1988 to 1994, as associate professor of American literature and women's studies), and, beginning in 1994, as distinguished professor of English at City College of New York.[24][25]In 2004, she joined Berea College as Distinguished Professor in Residence.[35] Her 2008 book, belonging: a culture of place, includes an interview with author Wendell Berry as well as a discussion of her move back to Kentucky.[36] She was a scholar in residence at The New School on three occasions, the last time in 2014.[37] Also in 2014, the bell hooks Institute was founded at Berea College,[3] where she donated her papers in 2017.[38] On December 15, 2021, hooks died from kidney failure at her home in Berea, Kentucky, aged 69.[2][8]