Patricia Hill Collins
Patricia Hill Collins is an American academic specialising in race, class and gender. She is a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the former head of the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Cincinnati, …
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a public research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Maryland, and is the largest university in both the state and the Washington metropolitan area, wit…
What is Patricia Hill Collins doing now?
In 2005, Patricia Hill Collins joined the University of Maryland where she was the Wilson Elkins Professor of Sociology 2005-2006 and is currently Distinguished University Professor. In her new location, she is working with graduate students in race, feminist scholarship, and sociological theory.
What is Patricia Hill Collins theory of black feminism?
In standpoint theory The American sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990), proposed a form of standpoint theory that emphasized the perspective of African American women.
What is the best book on Patricia Hill Collins?
"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.
What is the matrix of oppression according to Patricia Hill Collins?
Collins argued that the matrix of oppression—an interlocking system of race, gender, and class… Similarly, American sociologist Patricia Hill Collins characterized the features of “Black feminist epistemology” as “lived experience as a criterion of meaning.”
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Why is Patricia Collins important?
Patricia Hill Collins is the 100th president of the ASA and the first African American woman to hold this office. Her election is one of the many "firsts" that we are witnessing in this new millennium, as some of the barriers that have existed for women and people of color have lifted.
Why is Patricia Hill Collins important to sociology?
The American sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990), proposed a form of standpoint theory that emphasized the perspective of African American women.
What type of feminist is Patricia Hill Collins?
Thoughtfully. In "The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought", Patricia Hill Collins argued that black feminist thought centered on both race and gender and grew out of black communities as opposed to the white feminist movement.
How many books did Patricia Hill Collins write?
Black Feminist Thought1990Intersectio...2016Black Sexual Politics2004Intersectio... as Critical Social The...2019On Intellectual Activism2012Fighting Words: Black Wo...1998Patricia Hill Collins/Books
Who created feminist standpoint theory?
Sandra HardingSandra Harding is the main canonizing force behind feminist standpoint theory.
What is intersectionality according to Patricia Hill Collins?
In Patricia Hill Collins' most well-known book, titled Black Feminist Thought she defines intersectionality as “particular forms of intersecting oppressions, for example; intersections of race and gender, or of sexuality and nation” (Collins, 2000).
What is the concept of intersectionality?
Intersectionality is a framework for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by a number of discriminations and disadvantages. It takes into account people's overlapping identities and experiences in order to understand the complexity of prejudices they face.
Who coined the term intersectionality?
Kimberlé Williams CrenshawIntersectionality (or intersectional theory) is a term first coined in 1989 by American civil rights advocate and leading scholar of critical race theory, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. It is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination.
What are the four domains of power?
Second, intersecting systems of oppression are specifically organized through four interrelated domains of power: structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal.
Is intersectionality a critical theory?
While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods.
Who coined the term intersectionality?
Kimberlé Williams CrenshawIntersectionality (or intersectional theory) is a term first coined in 1989 by American civil rights advocate and leading scholar of critical race theory, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. It is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination.
What is the concept of intersectionality?
Intersectionality is a framework for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by a number of discriminations and disadvantages. It takes into account people's overlapping identities and experiences in order to understand the complexity of prejudices they face.
Is intersectionality a critical theory?
While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods.
Who is Patricia Hill Collins?
In 2009, a video from the C-Span website titled "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."
Where was Patricia Collins born?
Collins was born on May 1, 1948 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Albert Hill, a factory worker and Second World War veteran, and Eunice Hill, a secretary. Her parents met in Washington, DC. Patricia has no siblings.
When did Patricia Hill Collins give her commencement address?
In 2012, a video from the YouTube website titled "Dr. Patricia Hill Collins Delivers 2012 Graduate Commencement Address", Collins gives the commencement address at Arcadia University on Thursday, May 17, 2012, when she received an honorary doctorate; she provides stories of her past from growing up in Philadelphia, her parents (as well as her) 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.
What is the theme of Black Feminist Thought?
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 . : 46 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. : 46
What is the author's view on 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.
Who is the author of Intersectionality?
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.
Who was the first African American to be named Professor of Sociology?
Jessie Bernard Award by the American Sociological Association for significant scholarship in the area of Gender (1993) Named The Charles Phelps Taft 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).
standpoint theory
The American sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990), proposed a form of standpoint theory that emphasized the perspective of African American women. Collins argued that the matrix of oppression—an interlocking system of race, gender, and class…
the personal is political
Similarly, American sociologist Patricia Hill Collins characterized the features of “Black feminist epistemology” as “lived experience as a criterion of meaning.” She argued that among many black women, personal experience was treated as being more epistemologically valuable than science or theory because it was based on immediate reality.
What is Patricia Hill Collins's work?
The Work. Many people learned about Patricia Hill Collins when her groundbreaking article, "Learning from the Outsider Within, " was published in Social Problems in 1986. The article articulated a standpoint reflecting her race, gender, and social class location as she moved across and within various institutions.
Who is Patricia Collins?
As a former ASA Minority Fellowship recipient , she has served on the ASA committee that oversees that program, two years as chair (1985-88), as well as the ASA Task Force (1989-93) that first created the Minority Opportunity Summer Training (MOST).
What was the title of the book Black Feminist Thought?
In 1990 Collins published Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, which won ASA's Jessie Bernard Award, the SSSP C. Wright Mills Award, and garnered other awards from the Association of Women in Psychology and Black Women Historians.
Where was Patricia Hill born?
Patricia Hill was born in Philadelphia in 1948, the only child to Eunice Randolph Hill and Albert Hill. Her parents were directly affected by World War II. Her father was a veteran who met her mother in Washington, DC, where she had migrated to during the war to work. Pat is part of a cohort of working-class youth who had educational opportunities long denied their parents. During the 1950s and 1960s, most northern cities had public schools that were channels for social mobility. Schools were well funded, but navigating them was not easy. Pat was a quiet, but diligent, student in Philadelphia. Her education there was a stepping stone to Brandeis University. Writing in Black Feminist Thought, she said that, contrary to the support she had in the Black working-class community, the spaces she was desegregating were less welcoming:
Where did Patricia Collins teach?
In 1982, the Collins family relocated to Cincinnati, where Roger taught in the School of Education at the University of Cincinnati. Patricia joined him at that institution in the Department of African American Studies. This department would be her home base for 23 years where she also served as Chair from 1999-2002. Working in African American Studies gave Patricia the intellectual space to question the boxes that people generally use to frame issues within disciplinary fields. She also developed links between Women's Studies and Sociology, where in 1996 she became the Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Professor of Sociology, now Emeritus.
What was Pat's role in the 1950s?
During the 1950s and 1960s, most northern cities had public schools that were channels for social mobility. Schools were well funded, but navigating them was not easy.
Who was Pauli Murray?
An important advisor at Brandeis was Pauli Murray, an African American woman who had opened many doors during the Civil Rights movement. Pat saw her connection to Murray important to intergenerational community building, as those who gain in one era have to work for social change over their careers.
Who is Patricia Collins?
Patricia Hill Collins born to Albert Hill and Eunice Rudolph Hill on May 1st, 1948 in Philadelphia grew up in a middle-class family as an only child. She later works on the intersectionality between race, class, gender was influenced by her early childhood experiences of being the only African-American or first African-American woman in her ...
What is Patricia Hill Collins' perspective?
She discusses the intersectionality of standpoint, which is the idea that different individuals perceive the social reality around them differently based on the social group they belong to . Collins has always questioned the traditional framing of structures and believes that structures are created by dominant thought reflective of power narratives. She believes that they need to be a deeper understanding of the social forces that create at structures so that a counter-narrative can be formed.
What does Collins believe about oppression?
Collins does not subscribe to the European masculinist idea of a hierarchy of oppression which is that one’s oppression by virtue of a certain identity is greater than others. She underscores that an individual’s status in society is determined not by a single standpoint but by a multitude of standpoints. Other critical accounts such as the Frankfurt School believe that power operates in a top-down hierarchy, i.e. group higher up the hierarchy force unwilling with victims to bend to their will. However, Collins (1990/2000 : 226) asserts that “depending on the context, an individual may be oppressor, a member of an oppressed group or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed… Each individual derives varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the multiple systems of oppression which frame everyone’s lines”.
Who is credited with developing the term "intersectionality"?
Intersectionality. Although first formally articulated by Kimberly Crenshaw, Collins is credited with fully developing the term intersectionality. She explained how oppression from anyone identity could not be studied in isolation with the web of oppression that operates due to a multitude of identities.
Who is Astha from Miranda House?
Astha is an opinionated Gen Z and a dedicated bibliophile who is currently pursuing Political Science and Economics at Miranda House. She is an ambivert and finds discussions on politics and international affairs to be her favorite icebreakers. She is a proud feminist.
Overview
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. She is also the former head of the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Cincinnati, and a past President of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Collins was t…
Family Background
Patricia Hill Collins was born on May 1, 1948, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up an only child in a predominately Black, working-class neighborhood. Both of Collins’ parents worked. Her father, Albert Hill, was a factory worker and a Second World War veteran. Her mother, Eunice Hill, was a secretary. Her parents met in Washington, DC. Since both of Collins’ parents worked, she began attending daycare at two and a half years old. Collins’ love for reading and education cam…
Early life
As a child, Collins found herself feeling safe and secure in her 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. Additionally, Collins is a musician; as a child, she and her friends enjoyed making and singing music together. She can play the trumpet, piano, and organ. While in high school Collins worked …
Education
Collins attended Philadelphia public schools —and even at a young age, Collins had realized that she attended a school that catered to mostly white middle-class students that were in a predominantly Black neighborhood. During the 1950s and 1960s, when Patricia was going to school, most schools in northern cities like Philadelphia were channels for social mobility. Although they were well funded, they were not particularly easy to navigate, especially for Africa…
Career Honors
Collins is recognized as a social theorist, 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.
• Faculty of the Year Award at the University of Cincinnati (1991)
Participation in American Sociological Association
In 2009, Patricia Hill Collins became the 100th President of the ASA (American Sociology Association) and the first African-American Woman in the position. Her work with the ASA began far earlier, however, one she was named an ASA Minority Fellow in the 1980’s. She spent two years as chair of the Minority Fellowship program from 1985-1988 and chair of the ASA Task Force from 1989-1993. This background with the association as well as an extensive catalog of …
Participation in Social Activism
On October 13, 2014, Patricia Hill Collins gave a lecture at DePaul University in Chicago, IL 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 particip…
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 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 Franko…