On Intellectual Activism

Patricia Hill Collins is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park and author of From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism; Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment; and Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. She is a past president of the American Sociological Association.

"On Intellectual Activism is Collins' attempt to frame her more-than-20-year intervention in the critical issues of gender, race and sexuality for an audience not likely to sit in on her--or anyone else's--introduction to gender studies class... Her book is a cogent reminder of the stakes of engagement." Ms. Magazine , Fall 2012 "On Intellectual Activism...presents readers with an opportunity to marvel at the incredible internal coherence of [Collins's] life's work. The sociology of Collins's imagining is quite appealing. Despite the sorrow reflected and generated by many of the topics under consideration, her analyses are enormously enjoyable to read because she is so cogent and she notices so much. Like a present-day sage, she seems able to interpret any situation - from the family rhetoric that supported Barack Obama's presidential election to the selection of housewares available at T. J. Maxx - with acuity... Her longstanding and gorgeously articulated contempt for the problematic standards that govern success in academia is on proud display in these writings that span decades."--Gender and Society

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionNote on UsageI  BLACK FEMINISM1 Why Black Feminist Thought?2 Fighting Words . . . Or Yet Another Version of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”3 Black Sexual Politics 1014 Resisting Racism, Writing Black Sexual Politics5 Still Brave? Black Feminism as a Social Justice ProjectII  SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE6 Learning from the Outsider Within Revisited7 Going Public: Doing the Sociology That Had No Name8 Changing Times: Sociological Complexities9 The Racial Threat10 Rethinking Knowledge, Community, and Empowerment: An InterviewIII  CRITICAL EDUCATION11 Critical Pedagogy and Engaged Scholarship: Lessons from Africana Studies12 Teaching for a Change: Critical Pedagogy and Classroom Communities13 Another Kind of Public Education14 Making Space for Public Conversations: An InterviewIV RACIAL POLITICS15 Coloring Outside the Color Line16 Are We Living in a Post-Racial World?17 The Ethos of Violence18 Who’s Right? What’s Left? Family Values and U.S. PoliticsV  INTELLECTUAL ACTIVISM REVISITED19 Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection20 Where Do We Go from Here?Index