bell hooks speaking during the formal presentation of her papers to Berea College on April 10, 2017.
(Photo: Bethany Posey ’18)
bell hooks, Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies, was recently highlighted in a New York Times column by award-winning novelist and former student, Min Jin Lee. In the article, Lee looks back on her time as a student at Yale University in hooks’ “Introduction to African-American Literature” class. The writer reflects on how hooks’ writing helped shape the perception Lee initially had of her place in the feminist movement as a Korean woman.
While hooks didn’t assign her own literature, Lee explains that she and her friends sought out their assistant professor’s first book, “Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism,” anyway. Initially, Lee expected she wouldn’t have a place in other prominent activists’ vision of feminist liberation. hooks’ work changed all of that. “For me, reading ‘Ain’t I A Woman,’ was as if someone had opened the door, the windows, and raised the roof in my mind,” Lee says.