bell hooks papers

Noted intellectual, feminist theorist, cultural critic, artist, poet, and public speaker Gloria Jean Watkins (aka bell hooks) was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky on September 25, 1952, one of the six children of Rosa Bell Oldham Watkins and Veodis Watkins. She graduated from Hopkinsville High School and earned degrees in English Literature from Stanford University (B.A., 1973), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (M.A., 1976) and the University of California-Santa Cruz (PhD, 1986). Watkins chose the lower case pen name bell hooks, based on her maternal great-grandmother's name, to draw attention to her writings instead of drawing attention to herself. Dr. hooks wrote prolifically. Her bibliography includes scholarly and popular articles, book chapters, and more than forty books, including five children’s books. She taught at UC-Santa Cruz, Yale University, Oberlin College, City College of New York, and Berea College. Dr. hooks moved to Berea, Kentucky in 2004 to serve as Distinguished Professor in Residence of Appalachian Studies. In 2014 she established the bell hooks Institute at Berea College as a platform for furthering her work. In 2018 she was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

Dr. hooks died in Berea on December 15, 2021.