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Bell hooks
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{{Short description|American author and activist (1952–2021)}} {{For|the mixtape|Bell Hooks (mixtape){{!}}''Bell Hooks'' (mixtape)}} {{DISPLAYTITLE:bell hooks}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = bell hooks | image = bell hooks, October 2014.jpg | caption = hooks in October 2014 | birth_name = Gloria Jean Watkins | birth_date = {{birth date|1952|9|25}} | birth_place = [[Hopkinsville, Kentucky]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age |2021|12|15|1952|9|25}} | death_place = [[Berea, Kentucky]], U.S. | education = {{ubl|[[Stanford University]] ([[B. A.|BA]])|[[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] ([[M. A.|MA]])|[[University of California, Santa Cruz]] ([[PhD]])}} | years_active = 1978–2018 | occupation = {{flatlist| *author *academic *activist }} | known_for = [[Oppositional gaze]] | notable_works = {{plainlist| *''[[Ain't I a Woman? (book)|Ain't I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism]]'' (1981) *''[[Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center]]'' (1984) *''[[Teaching to Transgress]]'' (1994) *''[[All About Love: New Visions]]'' (2000) *''[[Teaching Community: A pedagogy of hope]]'' (2003) *''[[We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity]]'' (2004) }} | website = {{URL|https://web.archive.org/web/20210108230404/http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com/}} }} '''Gloria Jean Watkins''' (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name '''bell hooks''' (stylized in lowercase),<ref name="pen-name">{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Dinitia |date=September 28, 2006 |title=Tough arbiter on the web has guidance for writers |page=E3 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/books/28chic.html |url-status=live |access-date=February 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703133936/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/books/28chic.html |archive-date=July 3, 2018 |quote=But the Chicago Manual says it is not all right to capitalize the name of the writer bell hooks because she insists that it be lower case.}}</ref> <!-- Do not capitalize -->was an American author, theorist, educator, and social critic who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at [[Berea College]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holland |first=Jennifer L. |title=Tiny you: a western history of the anti-abortion movement |date=2020 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-96847-9 |location=Oakland, California}}</ref> She was best known for her writings on race, [[feminism]], and class.<ref name="Guardian obit">{{cite news |last=Knight |first=Lucy |date=December 15, 2021 |title=Bell Hooks, author and activist, dies aged 69 |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/15/bell-hooks-author-and-activist-dies-aged-69 |url-status=live |accessdate=December 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215184243/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/15/bell-hooks-author-and-activist-dies-aged-69 |archive-date=December 15, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Encyclopaedia Britannica">{{cite web |last=Tikkanen |first=Amy | title=Bell Hooks {{!}} American scholar |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/bell-hooks |website=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]|publisher=Stanford University|date=November 27, 2019 |access-date=March 31, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> She used the lower-case spelling of her name to decenter herself and draw attention to her work instead. The focus of hooks' 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 [[classism|class domination]]. She published around 40 books, including works that ranged from essays, poetry, and children's books. She published numerous scholarly articles, appeared in documentary films, and participated in public lectures. Her work addressed love, [[Race (human categorization)|race]], [[social class]], gender, art, history, sexuality, mass media, and feminism.<ref name="Hsu-2021">{{Cite magazine|last=Hsu|first=Hua|date=December 15, 2021|title=The Revolutionary Writing of Bell Hooks|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-revolutionary-writing-of-bell-hooks|url-status=live|access-date=December 16, 2021|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-US|archive-date=December 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216061035/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-revolutionary-writing-of-bell-hooks}}</ref> 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]], [[New College of Florida]], and [[The City College of New York]], before joining Berea College in [[Berea, Kentucky]], in 2004.<ref name="Get to know Bell Hooks">{{Cite web|title=Get to Know Bell Hooks|url=https://www.berea.edu/bhc/about-bell/|access-date=December 15, 2021|website=The Bell Hooks center|language=en-US|archive-date=December 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215180252/https://www.berea.edu/bhc/about-bell/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2014, hooks also founded the bell hooks Institute at Berea College.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com//|title=About the Bell Hooks institute|website=Bell Hooks institute|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108230404/http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com//|access-date=December 17, 2021|url-status=usurped|archive-date=January 8, 2021}}, via [[archive.org]]</ref> Her pen name was borrowed from her maternal [[great-grandmother]], Bell Blair Hooks.<ref name="Inspired Eccentricity, Talking Back">hooks, bell, "Inspired Eccentricity: Sarah and Gus Oldham" in Sharon Sloan Fiffer and Steve Fiffer (eds), ''Family: American Writers Remember Their Own'', New York: Vintage Books, 1996, p. 152.{{pb}} hooks, bell, ''Talking Back'', Routledge, 2014 [1989], p. 161.</ref>
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