Dr. Patricia Hill Collins: Sociology Professor and Published Author

Posted on 20. Aug, 2009 by Leshell Hatley in Faculty, I'm a Full Professor!, Research, Scholarly Celebrations

Dr. Patricia Hill Collins

Patricia Hill Collins is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, former head of the Department of African American Studies at the University of Cincinnati and current President of the American Sociological Association Council. She came to national attention for her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, originally published in 1990.

Collins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1948. The daughter of a factory farm worker and a secretary, Collins attended the Philadelphia public schools. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in 1969, she earned a Master of Arts in teaching from Harvard University in 1970. Between 1970 and 1976, she was a teacher and curriculum specialist at St Joseph Community School, as well at two other community schools in Boston, Mass. She is the Charles Phelps Taft Emeritus Professor of Sociology (and formerly the Director) of the African American Center at Tufts University between 1976 and 1980 before completing her doctorate at Brandeis in 1984.

In 1990, her first book, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, was published. A revised tenth anniversary edition of the book was published in 2000. It won the Jessie Bernard Award of the American Sociological Association (ASA) for significant scholarship in gender, and the C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Her second book, Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology, 6th ed. (2007), edited with Margaret Andersen, is widely used in undergraduate classrooms in over 200 colleges and universities. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism (Routledge, 2004) received ASA’s 2007 Distinguished Publication Award. Her other books include Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice (University of Minnesota Press, 1998); and From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism (Temple University Press in press for 2005). She has published many articles in professional journals such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, Signs, Sociological Theory, Social Problems, and Black Scholar, as well as in edited volumes.

Professor Collins’s current research interests lie in:

1. investigating the actual and/or potential interconnections between critical race theory and American pragmatism;
2. theorizing intersectionality, namely, analyzing how race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and nation mutually construct one another as concepts and as social phenomena;
3. exploring epistemologies of emancipatory knowledges, for example, ideologies of nationalism and feminism as well as influential knowledges of popular culture and everyday life; and
4. examining how the status of Black male and female youth sheds light on broader social processes such as globalization, transnationalism, class inequalities, racism and gender inequities.

Click the image below to watch Dr. Collins talk about her book entitled: Another Kind of Public Education.

Book Talk: Another Kind of Public Education

More Related posts:

1. Alain Locke: 1st Black Rhodes Scholar, Author, Full Philosophy Professor @ Howard
2. Dr. Marvin Lynn: Professor & Teacher Educator
3. Dr. Robbin Chapman: E-Learning Consultant and Author of New Book
4. Geneva Gay: Education Professor, Researcher, Author
5. Mark Anthony Neal: Professor, Author, and Social Commentator

Tags: $1Millon Challenge Winner, and Feminism, ASA's 2007 Distinguished Publication Award, Associated Medical Schools of New York State, authored eleven technical publications in the field of analytical chemistry, Awards Wellness Foundation Award, Black Feminist Thought, Black Sexual Politics: African Americans Gender and the New Racism, Brandeis University, C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Charles Phelps Taft Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Chronicles of Faith, College Park, Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, Congressional Gold Medal, Department of African American Studies, Distringuished University Professor of Sociology, Dr. Jared A. Ball, Dr. William H. Bill Cosby, educational software, Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice, From Black Power to Hip-Hop: Racism, Harvard Institute of Educational Managemen, Harvard University, Head of the UCLA Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program, healthy food, Imagination, Jessie Bernard Award of ASA, Jewish Theological Seminary, Maryland, Mechanical Engineering, Medgar Evers College, Nationalism, Patricia Hill Collns, Philadelphia, President American Sociological Association Council, President of Washington Area School Study Council, Race Class and Gender: An Anthology, Texas Bar, Toy Story 2, Tufts University, University of Cincinnati, University of Maryland, Writing Science