Huntington News, February 2022
One of Black feminism’s most prolific and influential scholars, bell hooks, née Gloria Jean Watkins, died Dec. 15, 2021 at the age of 69. To celebrate her life and honor her legacy, Dr. Régine Jean-Charles, the Dean’s Professor of Culture and Social Justice and the director of Northeastern’s Africana Studies Program, organized a symposium Feb. 11 with panelists from across the greater Boston area.
“I think in our community of Black feminist scholars especially, [bell hooks’] death was just really a shock and really sad, especially in a year that already had so much loss,” said Jean-Charles, a professor of Africana Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. “I’m the type of person who, if I can channel my grief into an action, it makes me feel so much better. … Because of my role at Northeastern as the director of Africana Studies, I had resources available to me to be able to pull something off, and I have a great team that is really good at handling logistics and planning events.”
