Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

• Genre: Nonfiction; pedagogy essay collection
• Originally Published: 1994
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 14 chapters and introduction; approx. 216 pages; approx. 7 hours, 30 minutes on audio
• Central Concern: This work is a collection of essays reflecting on how classroom environments can marginalize individuals and foster racism and gender discrimination; the author offers theories on pedagogy that instead promote educational systems which work to transgress the boundaries of bias and power and support freedom for all.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Racism and prejudice, sexism

bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins), Author

• Bio: 1952-2021; poet, writer, and teacher; born in Kentucky and raised in a racially-segregated community and school system in Hopkinsville, Kentucky; earned a scholarship to Stanford University and graduate degrees at the University of Wisconsin (master’s in English literature) and University of California (Ph.D.); served as a professor at a number of colleges and universities; published over 30 works of nonfiction and other writings in which she explored feminist theory, racism, identity, pedagogy, place, and politics; preferred her pen name uncapitalized to emphasize the topics of her works instead of the writer
• Other Works: Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981); Feminist Theory from Margin to Center (1984); Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies (1996); Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life (1997); Communion: The Female Search for Love (2002); We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity (2003)
• Awards: 1991 American Book Award for Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics (Before Columbus Foundation); 1994 Writer’s Award (Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund); 2001 Image Award nomination for Happy to Be Nappy (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People); 2002 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee for Salvation: Black People and Love; 2002 Children’s Book of the Year for Homemade Love (Bank Street College); 2012 Best Poetry Award for Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place (Black Caucus of the American Library Association)