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Feb.
26, 2002 (Lexington, Ky.) --
The University of Kentucky welcomed Patricia Hill
Collins, its newest Bryan Endowed Chair, to campus
today. Collins will join the UK faculty in the fall
for a one-year appointment as a visiting professor
and the Bryan Endowed Chair in Women's Studies and
African-American Studies.
"Our hope
with the Bryan Chair program is to attract senior
level, nationally known faculty to campus to expand
learning opportunities for our students and faculty,"
said Mike Nietzel, UK's acting provost. "Adding Dr.
Collins to our faculty is an exciting chance to fulfill
that hope."
Collins
comes to UK from the University of Cincinnati, where
she is chairperson of and Charles Phelps Taft Professor
of Sociology within the Department of African-American
Studies. She will retain her appointments at Cincinnati
while serving at UK.
She said
she hopes her tenure as a visiting professor will
serve as an opportunity to bring together UK scholars
already working on race and gender issues and develop
a new intellectual energy around those topics.
"My work
looks at those kinds of issues in ways that encourage
people to participate in framing solutions to those
problems as opposed to feeling guilty about them or
denying that they are there," she said. "Those solutions
should say this is a country founded on issues of
freedom and social justice. This is what we have to
struggle and try to do."
Collins
received her bachelor's and doctoral degrees in sociology
from Brandeis University and her master's degree from
Harvard University. Much of her research and scholarship
have dealt primarily with issues of race, gender,
social class and nationality, especially relating
to African-America women.
Collins
has taught at several institutions, held editorial
positions with professional journals, lectured widely
in the United States and abroad, served professional
organizations and acted as consultant for a number
of businesses and community organizations. She has
published articles in edited volumes and journals
such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, Signs, Sociological
Theory, Social Problems and Black Scholar.
Her first
book, "Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness
and the Politics of Empowerment," published in 1990
and revised in 2000, won the Jessie Bernard Award
of the American Sociological Association for significant
scholarship in gender and the C. Wright Mills Award
from the Society for the Study of Social Problems.
Her second
book, "Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology," edited
with Margaret Andersen, was first published in 1992
and continues to be widely used in undergraduate classes
in more than 200 colleges and universities. Her third
book, "Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search
for Justice," was published in 1998, and she is working
on her fourth book, "Black Sexual Politics," to be
published by Routledge in 2003.
At UK,
Collins will teach graduate classes looking at issues
of race and gender, deliver four public lectures (one
at Central Magnet High School in Louisville), conduct
research, and visit with campus and community groups.
The Bryan
Endowed Chair was established by a nearly $4 million
gift from William T. Bryan, a 1936 College of Engineering
graduate, bequeathed by his estate upon his death
in 1997. For 32 years, Bryan served Duriron Co. of
Dayton, Ohio, as a metallurgical engineer.
The gift
was matched by Kentucky's Research Challenge Trust
Fund and used to create six endowed chairs in areas
across the University.
The chair
foci and their occupants are:
-- Fine
arts/vocal music: Gail Robinson;
-- History:
Ron Formisano;
-- Public
finance: David Wildasin;
-- Special
education: Ted Hasselbring;
-- Spanish:
Enrico M. Santi;
-- Women's
studies/African-American studies: Patricia Hill Collins.
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