bell hooks

bell hooks (1952–2021), born Gloria Jean Watkins, was a US American literary scholar, author, and activist. She taught at institutions including Yale University, Oberlin College, and City College of New York, and later at Berea College in Kentucky. Her books and essays examined the intersections of feminism, racism, sexism, and class, helping shape debates associated with Black feminism and intersectional social criticism. Her first book, *Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism*, was published in 1981. She adopted the pen name bell hooks from her grandmother and deliberately used lowercase letters to draw attention away from herself and toward the ideas in her writing.