Patricia Hill Collins: A Voice that Redefined Intersectionality & Elevated Black Feminist Thought
Unveiling the 2023 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture Laureate
In a world of many voices, few have resonated with the power and prescience as that of Patricia Hill Collins. Today, we are thrilled to announce she is the 2023 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture Laureate. Recognized for her groundbreaking work in sociology, Patricia Hill Collins has developed a new vision and vocabulary for injustice and oppression, challenging intellectual norms, and calling for deeper exchange between theory and activism.
A Distinguished University Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland, Dr. Collins is the first Black laureate of the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture. In her landmark book Black Feminist Thought (1990), Dr. Collins gave voice to the long-ignored intellectual traditions of US Black women. This exploration of race, class, and gender as mutually constructed systems of power helped pave the way for the development of the now widely recognized framework of “intersectionality.”
From these earlier contributions to Race, Class and Gender: Intersections and Inequalities, a canonical textbook in the study of sociology that has been used at hundreds of colleges and universities, to one of her latest works, Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory (2019), Dr. Collins' scholarship and advocacy have continuously challenged the world's understanding of injustice. These new understandings have helped spark social movements and prompted reconfigurations at the highest levels of power in popular culture, politics, academia, and business, emphasizing the importance of representation, justice, and equality.
In this pivotal moment of global transformation, thinkers like Patricia Hill Collins guide humanity’s journey, helping us imagine new possibilities for the future of our world and reminding us of the power of ideas to shape our collective destiny.
About the Berggruen Institute
The Berggruen Institute’s mission is to develop foundational ideas and shape political, economic, and social institutions for the 21st century. Providing critical analysis using an outwardly expansive and purposeful network, we bring together some of the best minds and most authoritative voices from across cultural and political boundaries to explore fundamental questions of our time.
Our objective is to have an enduring impact on the progress and direction of societies around the world. To date, projects inaugurated at the Berggruen Institute have helped develop a youth jobs plan for Europe, fostered a more open and constructive dialogue between Chinese leadership and the West, strengthened the ballot initiative process in California, and launched Noema, a new publication that brings thought leaders from around the world together to share ideas. In addition, the Berggruen Prize, a $1 million award, is conferred annually by an independent jury to a thinker whose ideas are shaping human self-understanding to advance humankind.
We need much more focus on wise, conscious, practices in our public realm, including how we divorce ourselves from white supremacy culture. Our planetary urbanizing and shifting resource extracting logics only make this more urgent. It's so good to see this choice of who is being amplified.
In a society that values equality for all, the journey from intention to reality has been very difficult. Patricia Hill Collins’ work has not only put a spotlight on these difficulties but has also illuminated the potential avenues for addressing them effectively.
#IdeasMatter