1. BELL HOOKS bel hooks Famous writer, critic, theorist, educator Born Gloria Jean Watkins (1952) Hopkinsville, KY Father was janitorial custodian, mother homemaker B.A. Stanford, English M.A. Wisconsin Madison, English Ph.D. U.C. Santa Cruz, Literature Published more than 30 books, ranging in topics from black men, patriarchy and masculinity to self-help, engaged pedagogy to personal memoirs, and sexuality (in regards to feminism and politics of aesthetic/visual culture). A prevalent theme in her most recent writing is the community and communion, the ability of loving communities to overcome race, class, and gender inequalities.

2. Transformation = critical thinking + reading/writing. She argues that freedom and justice are linked to mass based literacy. “Major radical interruption” of thought happens with books… What does she mean when she says our minds are being “colonized,” and we need to “decolonized?” She believes that system of schooling is an “interlocking systems of colonization” and that we can't understand our world if we are looking through only one lens. Critical Thinking

3. Major Influences  Writers who have influenced hooks include:  African-American abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth (whose speech Ain't I a Woman? inspired her first major work).  Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (whose perspectives on education she embraces in her theory of engaged pedagogy).  Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest Gustavo Gutierrez.  Psychologist Erich Fromm.  Playwright Lorraine Hansberry.  Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.  African-American writer James Baldwin.  Guyanese historian Walter Rodney.  African-American black nationalist leader Malcolm X.  African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr (who addresses how the strength of love unites communities).  Review this list. What can you infer about hook based on her major influences?

4. Teaching to Transgress  In her book Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, hooks investigated the classroom as a source of constraint but also a potential source of liberation.  She argued that teachers' use of control and power over students dulls the students' enthusiasm and teaches obedience to authority, "confining each pupil to a role, assembly-line approach to learning.”  She advocated that universities encourage students and teachers to transgress, and sought ways to use collaboration to make learning more relaxing and exciting.  She described teaching as “a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more engaged.”