Author, Social Activist bell hooks to Speak at Georgia Southern University

March 18, 2010

Acclaimed author and professor bell hooks will speak at Georgia Southern University on March 25 at 7 p.m. in the Russell Union Ballroom. Her presentation, “Cultural Criticism and Transformation,” is free and open to the public.

Hooks, a Distinguished Professor of English at Berea College in Kentucky, examines popular culture in the context of patriarchy, white supremacy and capitalism. Although hooks is mainly known as a feminist thinker, her writings cover a broad range of topics on gender, race, class and culture, and the significance of media for contemporary culture.

Born Gloria Jean Watkins, she chose the lower-case pen name bell hooks based on the names of her mother and grandmother, to emphasize the importance of the substance of her writing as opposed to who she is. She is the author of numerous critically acclaimed and influential books.

Her first book, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, was named one of the 20 most influential women’s books of the last 20 years by Publishers Weekly in 1992. hooks’ works also include Feminist Theory, Feminism is for Everybody, Where We Stand: Class Matters, and Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

hooks also works with international foundations such as the Friere Project for Critical Pedagogy to promote global consciousness and critical thinking around the world through what she calls teaching ‘in a manner that works to transform consciousness and creates an atmosphere of open expression that is the mark of an emancipatory education.”

hooks’ visit to Georgia Southern is sponsored by the Multicultural Student Center, Women and Gender Studies, the Department of Counseling and Education, the Department of Curriculum Studies and the Campus Life Enrichment Committee. For more information, visit www.georgiasouthern.edu/speakerspotlight.

hooks will be available for media interviews at 6:15 at the Russell Union. Media are then welcome to cover her presentation.

Georgia Southern University, a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University, offers 115 degree programs serving 19,000 students. Through eight colleges, the University offers bachelors, masters and doctoral degree programs built on more than a century of academic achievement. The University, one of Georgia’s largest, is a top choice of Georgia’s HOPE scholars and is recognized for its student-centered approach to education. Visit: www.georgiasouthern.edu.