Patricia Hill Collins (born May 1, 1948) is an American academic specializing in race, class, and gender. She is a distinguished university professor of sociology emerita at the
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...
.
She is also the former head of the Department of
African-American Studies
Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...
at the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
. Collins was elected president of the
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
(ASA), and served in 2009 as the 100th president of the association – the first African-American woman to hold this position.
Collins's work primarily concerns issues involving
race,
gender
Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
, and
social inequality
Social inequality occurs when resources within a society are distributed unevenly, often as a result of inequitable allocation practices that create distinct unequal patterns based on socially defined categories of people. Differences in acce ...
within the African-American community. She gained national attention for her book ''
Black Feminist Thought'', originally published in 1990.
[Collins, Patricia. 2000. ''Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment''. Routledge.]
Family background
Patricia Hill Collins was born on May 1, 1948, in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, the only child of two parents living in a predominately Black, working-class neighborhood. Her father, Albert Hill, a factory worker and a
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
veteran, and her mother, Eunice Hill, a secretary, met in
Washington, DC
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
. Since both of Collins' parents worked, she began attending daycare at two and a half years old. Collins' love for reading and education came from her mother, who had always wanted to be an English teacher and briefly attended
Howard University
Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
. Unable to afford the tuition, Eunice was not able to graduate. After her daughter was born, Eunice made sure that she was exposed to literature at a young age, teaching her to read and introducing her to the public library.
[Gianoulis, Tina. "Collins, Patricia Hill." ''Contemporary Black Biography'', edited by Paula Kepos and Derek Jacques, vol. 67, Gale, 2008, pp. 24–27. ''Gale eBooks'', link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3027700015/GVRL?u=mlin_c_collhc&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=81451dd0. Accessed 28 February 2022.]
Early life
As a child, Collins felt safe and secure in her stable Black working-class neighborhood. As she played in the streets with her friends freely, she trusted the safety of her observant community. She would spend time outside roller skating and jumping double Dutch rope on her block with her friends. She and her friends enjoyed making and singing music together. A musician, she can play the trumpet, piano, and organ. While in high school Collins worked at her church playing the organ.
As she got older, Collins began to notice she was either the first, one of the few, or only African Americans and/or woman or working-class person in her communities. Of this, she wrote:
"I saw nothing wrong with being who I was, but apparently many others did. My world grew larger, but I felt I was growing smaller. I tried to disappear into myself in order to deflect the painful, daily assaults designed to teach me that being an African American, working-class woman made me lesser than those who were not. And as I felt smaller, I became quieter and eventually was virtually silenced."
Education
Collins attended Philadelphia public schools
—and even at a young age, Collins had realized that she attended schools that catered to mostly white middle-class students. During the 1950s and 1960s, when she was going to school, most schools in northern cities such as Philadelphia were channels for social mobility for Black migrants from the South or immigrants from Europe. Although they were adequately funded, they were not particularly easy to navigate, especially for African Americans and people of color like Collins. However, she was part of a group of young people who had access to educational resources and opportunities their parents did not.
Elementary school and high school
As a child, Collins attended Frederick Douglas Elementary School.
Later, she attended
Philadelphia High School for Girls
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,603,797 in the 2020 census. The city is the urb ...
(known as Girls' High), which was founded in 1848 as the nation's first public high school for women. Collins was in attendance during the 1960s, which was when the process of the desegregation of schools began
in the United States. This contributed to her growing interest in
sociology
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
,
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, and
activism
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...
for African-Americans and civil rights.
College education
In 1965, Collins went on to pursue an undergraduate career at
Brandeis University
Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
in
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the Technological and industrial history of the United States, American Industrial Revoluti ...
,
as a sociology major. While in college she devoted time to fostering progressive educational models in the schools of Boston's Black community. She graduated cum laude with honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology in 1969.
She proceeded to earn a Master of Arts degree in Teaching (MAT) in Social Science Education from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in 1970.
From 1970 to 1976, she was a middle school teacher, curriculum specialist, and community organizer at St. Joseph Community School in
Roxbury, Boston
Roxbury () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Roxbury is a Municipal annexation in the United States, dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for ne ...
, and two other schools.
Of which she says enabled her "to explore the connections among critical pedagogy, engaged scholarship, and the politics of knowledge production, delaying for a decade the deadening 'publish or perish' ethos of higher education. Instead, it put me on a different path of being a rigorous scholar and a public intellectual with an eye toward social justice traditions."
In 1984, she completed her doctorate in sociology at Brandeis University.
Career
From 1976 to 1980 she was the director of the Africana Center at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...
. As such Collins worked on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion through bringing the research, ideas, and culture Black communities to the campus. Additionally, she had aimed to bring attention to issues surrounding Black women.
While earning her Ph.D., Collins worked as an assistant professor at the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
beginning in 1982. She taught in the Department of Africana Studies for more than two decades and retired in 2005 as the Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Professor of Sociology.
In 1986, Collins published her first major article, "Learning from the Outsider Within," in the sociological journal ''Social Problems''. The article focuses on how Black women gain special insight on social inequality from their marginalized placement as being both Black and women. Black women have been able to creatively fight against the status quo.
In 1990, Collins published her first book, ''Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment''. A revised 10th-anniversary edition of the book was published in 2000 and a 30th-anniversary edition in 2023. The book was translated into Korean in 2009, French in 2016, and Portuguese in 2019.
In 2005, Collins joined the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
's department of sociology as a distinguished university professor. Working closely with graduate students on issues such as
critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic field focused on the relationships between Social constructionism, social conceptions of Race and ethnicity in the United States census, race and ethnicity, Law in the United States, social and political ...
,
intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
, and
feminist theory
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or Philosophy, philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's Gender role, social roles, experiences, intere ...
, she maintains an active research agenda and continues to write books and articles in relation to social, racial, and gender issues. Her work has achieved international recognition.
Collins is focused on understanding, in her own words, "How African American male and female youth's experiences with social issues of education, unemployment, popular culture and political activism articulate with global phenomena, specifically, complex social inequalities, global capitalist development, transnationalism, and political activism."
''Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment''
In 1990, Collins published ''
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment'', whose approach to the title topic was influenced by such figures as
Angela Davis
Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, and author. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness at the University of ...
,
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...
and
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde ( ; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, professor, philosopher, Intersectional feminism, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "Bl ...
. The analysis drew on a wide range of sources, including fiction, poetry, music, and oral history. Collins's work concluded with three central claims:
*Oppressions of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation are intersecting, mutually constructing systems of power. Collins utilizes the term ''
intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
'', coined by
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (born May 5, 1959) is an American civil rights advocate and a scholar of critical race theory. She is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School, where she specializes in race and gender issues.
Cr ...
, to refer to this simultaneous overlapping of multiple forms of oppression as a
matrix of domination.
*Because black women have unique histories at the intersections of systems of power, they have created world views out of a need for self-definition and to work on behalf of social justice. Black women's specific experiences with intersecting systems of oppression provide a window into these same processes for other individuals and social groups. Systems of oppression that Collins mentions are government agencies, schools, and the news.
*Black feminist thought on race and gender came from Black communities rather than in opposition to white feminism.
In ''Black Feminist Thought'', Collins posits how
Black feminist
Black feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism. Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently va ...
inquiry highlights two very important themes. One is "how Black women's paid work is organized within intersecting oppressions of race, class, and gender."
Although these women no longer work in domestic work in private homes, they continue to work at low-paying jobs in the growing service sector. Moreover, she continues, the theme that "concerns how Black women's unpaid family labor is simultaneously confining and empowering" for them is also extremely important.
Collins emphasizes this point because she points out that Black women see the unpaid work of their household as a method of resistance to oppression rather than solely as a method of manipulation by men.
In an interview wit
''Global Dialogue''magazine in 2017, Collins restated the argument that she laid out in ''Black Feminist Thought'' by emphasizing the controlling images faced by Black women: "In Black Feminist Thought, I examine how African-American women confront four main stereotypes: (1) the mule, the woman who works like an animal without complaint; (2) the jezebel, the highly sexualized woman who is often depicted as a prostitute; (3) the mammy, the Black woman domestic worker whose loyalty to her employer is beyond reproach; and (4) the Black lady, the educated Black woman who has given up family life in exchange for a career". These controlling images are utilized mainly to make black women's subjugated state of being harassed and silenced appear standard and natural.
In an interview with Oklahoma's
KGOU
KGOU (106.3 MHz) is a non-commercial, listener-supported, public radio station. It is licensed to Norman, Oklahoma, and serves the Oklahoma City Metroplex. radio station in 2017, Collins' discussed her careful process while writing the book: "I think it was very difficult for me to come to voice around the types of work that I do because there was no space for this work," Collins says. "We had to create the space to write black feminist thought, to talk about race, class, gender, to talk about
intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
. And that was all part of the process of being seen as legitimate, being listened to, being clear, being respected"
''Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology''
Published in 1992, ''Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology'' was a collaboration with Margaret L. Andersen, in which Collins edited a compilation of essays on race, class, and gender. The book is widely recognized for shaping the field of race, class, and gender studies, as well as its related concept of intersectionality. The essays cover a variety of topics, from historical trends and their effects today, to the current media portrayal of minority groups. The tenth edition was published in 2020.
''Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice''
Collins' third book ''Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice'' was published in 1998. ''Fighting Words'' focused on how Black women's knowledge examines social injustices within Black communities and wider society. Expanding on the idea of "outsiders within" from her previous book, she examines how outsiders resist the majority's perspective, while simultaneously pushing for and creating new insight into the social injustices that exist. Collins also notes how acknowledging the social theories of oppressed groups are important because their different experiences have created new angles of looking at human rights and injustice. This has not always been the case because, as she points out, "elites possess the power to legitimate the knowledge that they define as theory as being universal, normative, and ideal".
In 2021, Collins was interviewed by the
Oprah Winfrey Network
The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN, also known as the OWN Network) is an American multinational basic cable television network which launched on January 1, 2011, effectively replacing the Discovery Health Channel, which one month later merged with ...
,
Finding the Full-Range of Your Voice" where she reflected on her quote, "publicly articulating rage typically constitutes less a revelation about oppression than a discovery of voice." She says that the terminology now would be "speaking your own truth, claiming all parts of yourself, including the rage."
She asserts, "Why would we reject anger, when there's so much to be angry about that affects us, that affect our children, that affects our communities, that affects our loved ones? Why would we want to tamp that down to become a good girl?"
''Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism''
Collins's next book, ''
Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism'', was published in 2004 and won the Distinguished Scholarly Book Award from the American Sociological Association. This work argued that racism and heterosexism were intertwined in multiple areas of life. For example, how ideals of beauty work to oppress African-Americans males and females, whether homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual. Collins asserts that people must examine the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality because looking at each issue separately can cause one to miss a large part of the problem. Her argument for resisting the creation of such narrow gender roles requires action on individual and community levels as well as recognizing success in areas other than those typically respected by Americans, such as money or beauty. Collins also contends that the oppression of African Americans cannot be successfully resisted without analyzing how intersecting oppressions influence their own group, such as the treatment of women or LGBTQ people.
''From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism''
In 2006, Collins published ''
From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism'', which examines the relationship between
black nationalism
Black nationalism is a nationalist movement which seeks representation for Black people as a distinct national identity, especially in racialized, colonial and postcolonial societies. Its earliest proponents saw it as a way to advocate for ...
, feminism and women in the hip-hop generation. The book is a collection of essays by her, written over multiple years, compiled into one cohesive examination of the current situation of African Americans. Collins examines contemporary structural racism, which she calls "new racism", and explores how old ideas about what racism is prevent society from recognizing and fixing the wrongdoings that persist. The author explores a range of examples, from American national identity, to motherhood, to feminine portrayal in hip-hop. Following the
Civil Rights Movement, she argues, there was a "shift from color-conscious racism that relied on strict racial segregation to a seemingly colorblind racism that promised equal opportunities yet provided no lasting avenues for African American advancement".
''Another Kind of Public Education: Race, Schools, the Media and Democratic Possibilities''
In 2009, Collins published ''Another Kind of Public Education: Race, Schools, the Media and Democratic Possibilities,'' in which she encourages the public to be more aware of and prevent the institutional discrimination that African-American children are experiencing today in the public education system. Collins explains that teachers have a great deal of power to be the facilitators of either discriminatory attitudes or tolerant attitudes; they are the "frontline actors negotiating the social issues of our time." Claiming that the education system is greatly influenced by the media, Collins examines racism as a system of power preventing education and democracy to reach its full potential.
[Collins, Patricia Hill, and Simmons College (2009). ''Another Kind of Public Education: Race, Schools, the Media and Democratic Possibilities''. Boston: Beacon Press.] Within the text, she provides examples of how people, specifically teachers in the education system, can resist colorblind racism to ensure children are provided with safe classroom environments and where they can be guaranteed freedom of expression.
One of the primary concerns in her book is the importance education has in producing citizens and making sure the disenfranchised feel empowered. Within the book, Collins includes personal stories about her position as an African-American child who felt "silenced in Philadelphia's public schools" in order to further elaborate on the important role the education institution has in establishing democracy.
Other books
Collins co-edited with John Solomos ''The Handbook of Race and Ethnic Studies'' (2010), a book on racial and ethnic stratification through an intersectional lens.
In 2012, she published ''On Intellectual Activism'', a collection of personal essays and interviews where she explains how ideas play an important part in bringing about social change.
In 2016 and revised in 2020, Collins also published the book ''Intersectionality,'' with co-author Sirma Bilge, which discusses, in depth, the intertwined nature of social categorizations such as race, class and gender, sexuality and nation, and how these ideas create a complex web of discrimination and disadvantage in society. Taking a global perspective, topics covered include the history of intersectionality, critical education, human rights, violence, global social protest, identity politics, and women of color feminism in the United States and Brazil.
In 2023, she published the book ''Lethal Intersections: Race, Gender, and Violence,'' which explores how violence differentially affects people according to their class, sexuality, nationality, and ethnicity.
Career honors
Collins is recognized as a
social theorist
Social theories are analytical frameworks, or paradigms, that are used to study and interpret social phenomena.Seidman, S., 2016. Contested knowledge: Social theory today. John Wiley & Sons. A tool used by social scientists, social theories rel ...
, drawing from many intellectual traditions. She reconceptualizes the ideas of race, class, gender, sexuality and nationalism as interlocking systems of oppression. Her more than 40 articles and essays have been published in a wide range of fields, including philosophy, history, psychology, and most notably sociology.
In 2023 she became the first African American woman to be awarded the Berggruen Prize, a $1 Million Prize by the
Berggruen Institute
The Berggruen Institute is a Los Angeles-based think tank founded by Nicolas Berggruen.
History
Berggruen Institute was formed in 2010 by founder Nicolas Berggruen and co-founder Nathan Gardels as a global network of "thinkers" dedicated to ...
awarded annually to a thinker shaping political, economic, and social institutions.
*Faculty of the Year Award at the University of Cincinnati (1991)
*
C. Wright Mills
Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American Sociology, sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual jour ...
Award for the first edition of ''Black Feminist Thought'' (1991)
*Distinguished Publication Award by the Association for the Women in Psychology for ''Black Feminist Thought'' (1991)
*
Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize by the Association of Black Women Historians for ''Black Feminist Thought'' (1991)
*Award for Outstanding Service to African-American Students at the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
(1993)
*
Jessie Bernard Award by the
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
for significant scholarship in the area of Gender (1993)
*Named the
Charles Phelps Taft
Charles Phelps Taft (December 21, 1843 – December 31, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician who served as editor of the '' Cincinnati Times-Star,'' and owned both the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs baseball teams. From 1895 to 18 ...
Professor of Sociology by the University of Cincinnati, making her the first-ever African American, and only the second woman, to hold this position (1996).)
*Emeritus Status from University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, (2005).
*Emeritus Status from
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
, College Park (2018 )
*Distinguished University Professor from University of Maryland (2006)
*
American Sociological Association Distinguished Scholarly Book Award for her book ''Black Sexual Politics'' (2007)
*
Morris Rosenberg Award for Student Mentorship from the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
(2009)
*Doctor of Humane Letters. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY. (2009).
*Alumni Achievement Award from the
Harvard Graduate School of Education
The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first ...
(2011)
*Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize her contributions to racial and ethnic relations from
Brandeis University
Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
(2012)
* Doctor of Humane Letters. Arcadia University, Philadelphia, PA. (2012).
*
Doctor of Humane Letters.
Duquesne University
Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( ; also known as Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a Private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of ...
. Pittsburgh, PA. 2014.
*Doctor of Humane Letters.
College of Wooster
{{Infobox university
, image = College of Wooster seal.png
, image_upright = .6
, name = The College of Wooster
, former_names = University of Wooster (1866–1915)
, motto ...
. Wooster, OH. 2015.
*
W.E.B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist.
Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...
Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award from
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
(2017)
*Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2022.
Participation in American Sociological Association
Patricia Hill Collins was named an ASA (
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
) Minority Fellow in the 1980s. She spent two years as chair of the Minority Fellowship program from 1985 to 1988 and chair of the ASA Task Force from 1989 to 1993. In 2008, she became the 100th president of the ASA and the first African-American Woman in the organization's 104-year history. She delivered her presidential address in the 2009 ASA Annual Meeting. Collins work with the ASA, "The New Politics of Community" was published in the ''American Sociological Review'' and asserts that community is a dynamic political construct that, containing a plethora of different and contradicting agendas, can be used to evaluate issues of race, sex, and gender. She describes how community can be used for social examination for a number of reasons:
*The commonality of the "language of community", which, interchangeable with words like neighborhood, establishes community as a part of group identity
*Communities are "malleable" and easy to research
*Communities can hold many differing agendas and thus "reflect diverse and conflicting social practices"
*"the construct of community catalyzes strong, deep feelings that can move people to action,"
*"the construct of community is central to how people organize and experience social inequalities".
Participation in social activism
On October 13, 2014, Patricia Hill Collins gave a lecture at
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...
in
Chicago, IL
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
titled, "Charting a New Course: Intersectionality and Black Activism" to a group of 182 university students as well as to other residents of Chicago. In the lecture, Collins discussed activism stereotypes as well as intersectionality and how to use intersectionality to challenge the oppression they may face. She also encouraged the audience to create coalitions and to participate in activism themselves. Additionally, Collins' lecture allowed her audience to think critically about sociological thought and to figure out "what it means to strengthen one's power through ideas."
Academic responses
Collins' influential books on intersectionality and community have led way to many references and responses in sociological spheres. Notably, Professor
Shannon Sullivan of the
University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...
at Charlotte penned "Community as a Political and Temporal Construct: A Response to Patricia Hill Collins" in ''The Pluralist''. In the article, Sullivan connected the four aspects of a politically constructed community as laid out by Collins with Philosophy Professor Alfred Frankowski. While Sullivan finds Collins' "hope that a political understanding of community could enable genuine change that is not part of a changing-same pattern"
to be admirable, she contrasts this with Frankowski's assertion that the memorialization of Anti-Black violence is necessary for white-dominated communities to keep racist agendas in the past.
Sullivan ultimately finds that Frankowski's pragmatist philosophy is needed for White America to successfully evaluate the communities in which echo chambers fuel racial ignorance.
References in other academic spheres
Patricia Hill Collins' work has not only been referenced and referred to heavily in sociological circles, but her assertions on intersectionality and the black female experience have also been cited in literary analysis. In 2020, Parvin Ghasemi and Samira Heidari of the Molana Institute of Higher Education in Iran published "Patricia Hill Collins' Black Feminine Identity in
Toni Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically accl ...
's
''Beloved''" in the
Journal of African American Studies. The article describes how ''Beloved's'' main character, a mother and former slave in the post-slavery south, epitomizes and subsequently shatters Collins' proposed matrix of domination: "In line with Collin's philosophy, Morrison's novel presents a reaction to matrix of domination. In fact, the multiplicity of experience that Collin refers to can be found in the novel through the fact that readers see simultaneously the experience of being a marginalized, a murderer, a mother, a people of color, a traumatic woman, and a former slave. All these aspects help the collective experience of race disentangle itself from the structural oppression and discrimination. Though Seth is a traumatic figure, this portrayal helps to expose the true picture of a discriminatory society that produces such failing characters."
Representation of media
In 2009, a video from the
C-Span
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
website title
"BookTV: Patricia Hill Collins, author "Another Kind of Public Education"Collins takes a visit to "
Busboys & Poets", a restaurant/bookstore/theater located in Washington DC and provided an hour and 16 minutes-long "book talk" regarding her book ''Another Kind of Public Education''.
As the website describes the video: "Professor Collins posits that public education is heavily influenced by the media and by the continuing influence of institutional racism and she examines ways in which schools perpetuate racism and other forms of social inequality. Professor Collins also read passages from her book and responded to questions from members of the audience."
In 2012, a video from the YouTube website title
"Dr. Patricia Hill Collins Delivers 2012 Graduate Commencement Address" Collins gives the commencement address at
Arcadia University
Arcadia University is a private university in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, with a Glenside mailing address. The university enrolls approximately 3,200 undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students. The 94-acre (380,000 m2) Glenside cam ...
on Thursday, May 17, 2012, when she received an honorary doctorate. She provides stories of her past from growing up in Philadelphia, her and her parents' struggles, and being in a school that predominately caters to middle-class white students. She also touches upon breaking her silence and how she came about using her voice as a critical instrument to make social change.
In 2014, a video from the YouTube website title
"Patricia Hill Collins at Grand Valley State University February 2014" Collins gives a talk to undergraduate students from
Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University (GVSU, GV, or Grand Valley) is a public university in Allendale Charter Township, Michigan, Allendale, Michigan, United States. It was established in 1960 as Grand Valley State College. Its main campus is situated on ...
in which she expresses her concern of mainstream colorblindness, especially focusing on issues of racial profiling (regarding African Americans)
egarding Trayvon Martin">Trayvon_Martin.html" ;"title="egarding Trayvon Martin">egarding Trayvon Martinand tackling other issues regarding race, sex, class, etc. Additionally, Collins reads mini excerpts from her book ''
Black Feminist Thought''.
The website description is: "On February 26, 2014,
Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University (GVSU, GV, or Grand Valley) is a public university in Allendale Charter Township, Michigan, Allendale, Michigan, United States. It was established in 1960 as Grand Valley State College. Its main campus is situated on ...
's Office of Multicultural Affairs, Women's Center and LGBT Resource Center hosted Patricia Hill Collins as part of ongoing Intersections programming. Patricia Hill Collins presented "We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest: Lessons from Black Feminism".
In 2015, Collins visited
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public US-based research university. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Ma ...
and gave a presentation regarding sociological theory, mainly focusing on intersectionality's challenges and the critical inquiries.
In 2016, Collins alongside
Patricia Williams,
Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key Radical feminism, radical feminist member of the American Feminist movement, Wom ...
,
Kate Harding,
Polly Toynbee
Mary Louisa "Polly" Toynbee (; born 27 December 1946) is a British journalist and writer. She has been a columnist for ''The Guardian'' newspaper since 1998.
She is a social democrat and was a candidate for the Social Democratic Party in the 19 ...
, Arwa Mahdawi, and
Suzanne Moore were all asked the following panel question by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' following the defeat of
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
by
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
in the 2016 United States Presidential election: "What does the US election result say about misogyny?" In her answer, Collins exclaims: "I am disappointed but I will keep up the fight."
She discusses the sadness she feels for Clinton's loss. Additionally, Collins brings one's attention to the idea that to gain social change, Americans must remember they will deal with struggles. Collins leaves the reader on a positive note by saying she believes that America has made progress in being committed to opportunity, equity, civility and fairness. However, she still sees a need to keep fighting to achieve a strong democracy.
On November 21, 2018, Collins gave a keynote lecture on "Intersectionality and Sociology" at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
during the university's 50 Years of Sociology conference. In this lecture, she reflected on her sociology career as well as "discussing critically the intersectional approach and alternative knowledge projects, and returning to the core question that motivates her work: What will it take for Black people to be free?"
In 2022, Collins was interviewed b
Gênero e Número where she talked about
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
, social justice, and the overturn of
Roe v. Wade
''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...
in the United States. She claims that the "Killing of George Floyd...was very significant in shifting the discussion of that particular social movement to the point where you had people not just in the United States but globally saying we believe in Black Lives Matter and issues related to that."
When asked about the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the United States she says, "I think it was really shocking for a lot of young women in the United States that this right was taken away on a federal level, but it wasn't particularly shocking for many of us who never had it in the first place...I think it's been very good for young women to realize that you don't get to keep something that you have, people come and take stuff from you...it's not fair, but that's what power is."
Legacy
While race and its accompanying social hierarchies have remained fundamental facets of sociological study, intersectional analysis and the study of collective, oppressed identities are largely attributed to Patricia Hill Collins. In Professor
Gurminder Bhambra's 2015 essay "Black Thought Matters: Patricia Hill Collins and the long tradition of African American sociology", Bhambra describes how Collins not only nurtured existing schools of African-American sociology but pushed the field into a new direction. On Collins' 1990 book ''Black Feminist Thought'', Bhambra wrote: "It has been both a scholarly beacon for researchers working through shared ideas and experiences, and an intellectual grounding from which further critical work has been enabled and more voices brought into conversation. Its influence ranges across disciplinary and geographical boundaries and dismantles conventional hierarchies in the process"
In Professor's
Elizabeth Higginbotham's 2012 essay
Reflections on the Early Contributions of Patricia Hill Collins" Higginbotham talks about the impact Collins' work had on the interdisciplinary field of women's studies. She believes, "her early work was truly significant in helping other scholars combat the labels of particularism, challenge the language of essentialism in women's studies, and move in ways to demonstrate that our scholarship has much to say about the nature of social life in the United States and the world."
Books
* Lethal Intersections: Race, Gender and Violence. Cambridge: Polity Press ISBN 978-1-5095-5315-0, 2024
*''Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory'', Durham: Duke University Press, , 2019
*(co-authored with Sirma Bilge)''Intersectionality'', Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, , 2016, 2020
*''On Intellectual Activism'', Philadelphia: Temple University Press, , 2012
*(co-edited with John Solomos) ''The SAGE Handbook of Race and Ethnic Studies'', Los Angeles: London: SAGE, , 2010
*''Another Kind of Public Education: Race, the Media, Schools, and Democratic Possibilities'', Beacon Press, , 2009
*''
From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism'', Temple University Press, , 2006
*''
Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism'', New York: Routledge, , 2005
*''Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice'', University of Minnesota Press, , 1998
*(co-edited with Margaret Andersen) ''Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology'', , 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2020
*''
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment'', Routledge, , 1990, 2000
Book chapters
*
*
Selected journal articles
* "Just Another American Story? The First Black First Family", in ''Qualitative Sociology'' 35 (2), 2012: 123–141.
* "New Commodities, New Consumers: Selling Blackness in the Global Marketplace", in ''Ethnicities'' 6 (3), 2006: 297–317.
* "Like One of the Family: Race, Ethnicity, and the Paradox of the US National Identity", in ''Ethnic and Racial Studies'' 24 (1), 2001: 3–28.
* "The Tie that Binds: Race, Gender, and U.S. Violence", in ''Ethnic and Racial Studies'' 21 (5), 1998: 918–938.
* "What's In a Name: Womanism, Black Feminism and Beyond", in ''Black Scholar'' 26 (1), 1996: 9–17.
* "The Meaning of Motherhood in Black Culture and Black Mother/Daughter Relationships", in ''Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Woman'' 4 (2), 1987: 4–11.
*"Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought", in ''Social Problems.'' 33 (6), 1986: 14–32.
See also
*
References
Footnotes
Works cited
*Gale Group, ''Contemporary Authors Online'', 2001 article on Patricia Hill Collins, published on ''Biography Resource Centre'', 2005.
*''Feminist Authors'', St James Press, 1996, article on Patricia Hill Collins. Reproduced on ''Biography Resource Centre'', 2005.
*"Patricia Hill Collins", ''World of Sociology'', 2 volumes, Gale Group, 2001. Reproduced on ''Biography Resource Centre'', 2005.
*"Patricia Hill Collins", ''Directory of American Scholars'', 10th edition, Gale Group, 2001.
*"Dr Patricia Hill Collins, ''Who's Who Among African-Americans'', 18th edition, Gale Group, 2005.
*Tonya Bolden, "Review of Black Feminist Thought", in ''Black Enterprise'', July 1992, v22, n12, p. 12(1).
*Tamala M. Edwards, "The F Word", ''Essence'', May 1999, volume 30, issue 1, p. 90.
*Katherine C. Adams, review of ''Black Sexual Politics'', ''Library Journal'' April 1, 2004, v129 i6, p. 111.
*Charles Lemert, "Social Theory", ''The Multicultural and Classic Readings'' 4th Edition Westview Press, 2010.
*James Farganis, ''Readings in Social Theory: The Classic Tradition to Post-Modernism''. 7th edn.
*Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, ''Intersectionality'', 2016.
External links
University of Maryland profileAmerican Sociological Association profile''From Black Power to Hip Hop'' (review)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Patricia Hill
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