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bel hooks
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Famous writer, critic, theorist, educator
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Born Gloria Jean Watkins (1952) Hopkinsville, KY
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Father was janitorial custodian, mother homemaker
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B.A. Stanford, English
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M.A. Wisconsin Madison, English
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Ph.D. U.C. Santa Cruz, Literature
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Published more than 30 books, ranging in topics from black
men, patriarchy and masculinity to self-help, engaged
pedagogy to personal memoirs, and sexuality (in regards
to feminism and politics of aesthetic/visual culture).
A prevalent theme in her most recent writing is the
community and communion, the ability of loving communities
to overcome race, class, and gender inequalities.
BELL HOOKS
Critical Thinking
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Transformation = critical thinking +
reading/writing.
She argues that freedom and justice are
linked to mass based literacy. “Major radical
interruption” of thought happens with books…
What does she mean when she says our minds
are being “colonized,” and we need to
“decolonized?”
She believes that system of schooling is an
“interlocking systems of colonization” and that
we can't understand our world if we are
looking through only one lens.
Major Influences
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Writers who have influenced hooks include:
African-American abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth (whose speech Ain't I a Woman? inspired her
first major work).
Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (whose perspectives on education she embraces in her theory of
engaged pedagogy).
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Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest Gustavo Gutierrez.
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Psychologist Erich Fromm.
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Playwright Lorraine Hansberry.
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Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
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African-American writer James Baldwin.
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Guyanese historian Walter Rodney.
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African-American black nationalist leader Malcolm X.
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African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr (who addresses how the strength of love unites
communities).
Review this list. What can you infer about hook based on her major influences?
Teaching to Transgress
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In her book Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, hooks investigated
the classroom as a source of constraint but also a potential source of liberation.
She argued that teachers' use of control and power over students dulls the students'
enthusiasm and teaches obedience to authority, "confining each pupil to a role, assembly-line
approach to learning.”
She advocated that universities encourage students and teachers to transgress, and sought
ways to use collaboration to make learning more relaxing and exciting.
She described teaching as “a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more
engaged.”