bell hooks (born September 25, 1952,Hopkinsville,Kentucky, U.S.—died December 15, 2021,Berea, Kentucky) was an American scholar and activist whose work examined the connections between race,gender, and class. She often explored the varied perceptions of Black women and Black women writers and the development of feminist identities.

Watkins grew up in a segregatedcommunity of the American South. At age 19 she began writing what would become her first full-length book,Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which was published in 1981. She studiedEnglish literature atStanford University (B.A., 1973), theUniversity of Wisconsin (M.A., 1976), and theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz (Ph.D., 1983).

Hooks assumed her pseudonym, the name of her great-grandmother, to honour female legacies; she preferred to spell it in all lowercase letters to focus attention on her message rather than herself. She taught English and ethnic studies at theUniversity of Southern California from the mid-1970s, African andAfro-American studies atYale University during the ’80s, women’s studies atOberlin College and English at the City College of New York during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2004 she became a professor in residence at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. The bell hooks Institute was founded at the college in 2014.

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In the 1980s hooks established a support group for Black women called theSisters of the Yam, which she later used as the title of a book, published in 1993, celebrating Black sisterhood. Her other writings includedFeminist Theory from Margin to Center (1984),Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989),Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992),Killing Rage: Ending Racism (1995),Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies (1996),Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work (1999),Where We Stand: Class Matters (2000),Communion: The Female Search for Love (2002), and the companion booksWe Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity (2003) andThe Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love (2004).Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice was published in 2012. She also wrote a number of autobiographical works, such asBone Black: Memories of Girlhood (1996) andWounds of Passion: A Writing Life (1997).