Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak presents “A Few Thoughts on Teaching Reading”

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, an internationally renowned literary theorist and feminist scholar, will speak today, March 6, as part of the Suzy Newhouse Center for the Humanities’ Distinguished Thinkers Program. Her lecture, “A Few Thoughts on Teaching Reading,” begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Suzy Newhouse Center Lounge.

Spivak is University Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University—the first woman of color to achieve that rank at Columbia—as well as a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. She is best known for her essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” and for her translation of and introduction to Jacques Derrida’s De la grammatologie. Spivak is also known for her philanthropic work in her home state of West Bengal, India, where she has established and taught at primary schools for more than 30 years.

This public lecture will focus on the connection between humanities and social justice: how to construct oneself (as knower) and the world (as knowable) in order to participate in the possibility of democracy. Spivak will also give a master class for students and will lead a small seminar for faculty as part of her visit.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Doors will open at 4 p.m. Please note that seating is limited, and doors will be closed when seats are filled. 

Spivak joins an esteemed list of Newhouse Distinguished Thinkers including Angela Davis, Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, and Salman Rushdie.

For more information, contact nchadmin@wellesley.edu.