Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize

Patricia Hill Collins, ’69, PhD’84

2013 Recipient

Patricia Hill Collins, ’69, PhD ’84, is an eminent scholar and Brandeis alumna who has dedicated her career to understanding the intersections of race, gender and class.

Collins is the author of seven books, including the seminal "Black Feminist Thought," and is currently a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She served as the 100th president of the American Sociological Association and was the first African American woman to hold that office.

A Philadelphia native, Collins came to Brandeis University in 1965 where she was deeply influenced by Pauli Murray, a civil rights leader and the university's first professor of African American and women's studies.

Collins received her master’'s degree in teaching from Harvard University and directed the African American Center at Tufts University before coming back to Brandeis to earn her doctorate in sociology.

In 1982, she joined the University of Cincinnati faculty, where she taught for 23 years.

Her first book, "Black Feminist Thought," was published in 1990 and won numerous awards, including the Jessie Bernard Award of the American Sociological Association and the C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Her other works include the widely used textbook "Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology, Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism and Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice." She has also authored more than 50 articles and essays, and dozens of film and book reviews.

Patricia Hill Collins was in residence Oct. 28-29, 2013. The Gittler award presentation and lecture was held Oct. 29, 2013.

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