Patricia Bell-Scott is an American scholar of

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...

and

black feminism Black feminism is a philosophy that centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that lack women'sliberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because our need as human persons for autonomy." Race, gen ...

. She is currently a professor emerita of women's studies and human development and family science at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. As an author, she has been widely collected by libraries worldwide.

Personal life

A native of

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020 ...

, Bell-Scott lives in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

, with her husband, Charles Vernon Underwood Jr., a retired Tennessee Valley Authority information technology manager.

Career

Patricia Bell-Scott is an author and professor emerita of women's studies and human development and family science at the University of Georgia. Her most recent book, ''The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice'', won the

Lillian Smith Book Award Jointly presented by the Southern Regional Council and the University of Georgia Libraries, the ''Lillian Smith Book Awards honor those authors who, through their outstanding writing about the American South, carry on Lillian Smith's legacy of elu ...

and was named Booklist Best Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year by the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

. This book was also named a finalist for the

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction __NOTOC__ The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction were established in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year. They are named in honor of ni ...

, and longlisted for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

. Bell-Scott's previous books include ''Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black Women'' (1994), which was a featured selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club; ''Flat-footed Truths: Telling Black Women's Lives'' (1998); ''Double Stitch: Black Women Write about Mothers and Daughters'' (1991), which won the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize, and ''

All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave ''All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave'' (1982) is a landmark feminist anthology in Black Women's Studies printed in numerous editions, co-edited by Akasha Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell-Scott, and Barbara Smith. ...

'' (co-edited with Gloria Hull and

Barbara Smith Barbara Smith (born November 16, 1946) is an American lesbian feminist and socialist who has played a significant role in Black feminism in the United States. Since the early 1970s, she has been active as a scholar, activist, critic, lecturer, a ...

, 1982), an award-winning textbook that was named to the ''Black Issues Books Review'' list of "Books that Made the Century Great." Bell-Scott served for a decade as co-founding editor of '' SAGE: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women''. She is a former contributing editor to '' Ms. Magazine''. She is also a co-founder of the National Women's Studies Association, for which she served as co-convener of the inaugural coordinating council. She has held post-doctoral fellowships at the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

and the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, as well as the Jane and Harry Willson Center for the Humanities and the Arts at the

. She has held professorial, research, and administrative appointments at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

, the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and her alma mater, the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

. A distinguished teacher, she is a co-founder of the University of Georgia Teaching Academy. She has also been honored by a diverse group of professional societies and institutions, including the Research on Women Special Interest Group of the

American Educational Research Association The American Educational Research Association (AERA, pronounced "A-E-R-A") is a professional organization representing education researchers in the United States and around the world. AERA's mission is to advance knowledge about education and p ...

, Division 35 (Psychology of Women) of the American Psychological Association, the Connecticut Chapter of the Coalition of 100 Black Women; ''

The Journal of Negro Education ''The Journal of Negro Education'' was a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Howard University, established in 1932 by Charles Henry Thompson, who was its editor-in-chief for more than 30 years.National Council on Family Relations, the

National Association for Women in Education The National Association for Women in Education (formerly known as The National Association of Deans of Women, the National Association of Women Deans and Counselors, and the National Association of Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors) was ...

, and the National Institute for Women of Color.

Publications

* ''

: Black Women's Studies'' (1982) * ''Black Adolescence: Current Issues and Annotated Bibliography'' * ''Double Stitch: Black Women Write about Mothers and Daughters'' (1991) * ''Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black Women'' (1994) * ''Flat-Footed Truths: Telling Black Women's Lives'' (1998) * ''The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship'' (2016)

References

External links

Patricia Bell-Scott's Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell-Scott, Patricia 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women African-American feminists American feminists American women academics American women writers Black feminism Living people University of Georgia faculty Women anthologists Year of birth missing (living people)