bell hooks militant pedagogy
Fabio Bocci, Martina De Castro
One of the salient aspects that characterizes in a peculiar way the precursors of inclusion is certainly the ability to inhabit — dialectically but without schism — the thinking and the acting, the theory and the praxis. The term «militancy» is often used — and today it is often recalled to designate a way of being in the pedagogy and to thinking about it — as an expression not so much of belonging to a certain organization or a certain movement, but as a way of being, of posing and being in things, of participating in the concrete dynamics of the social fabric, of living in contexts with authenticity, getting one’s hands dirty. Well, this description perfectly fits to the figure, thought, work and actions of bell hooks, who passed away in November 2021 at the age of 69. bell hooks was many things: writer, teacher, academic, essayist, activist, popularizer, cultural critic and more. She was able to inhabit all these multiple social identities, interweaving them along a red thread characterized by a vigilant, attentive, never predictable, indeed, always new and disorienting look, aimed at unveiling, taking an intersectional perspective, the mechanisms of domination-subordination generated by the sexist, racist and classist logic that pervades our social structure. The authors, aware of the impossibility of even imagining to essentialise the scientific and socio-cultural contribution of bell hooks, try here to give back at least a brief biographical, existential and intellectual profile, with the hope of respecting those who already know and appreciate this unique figure and with the hope of stimulating those who have not yet had the opportunity to «meet» her to treasure her extraordinary legacy.
Keywords
bell hooks, Inclusion, Racism, Feminism, Intersectional studies.
