Collins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1948. The daughter of a factory worker and a secretary, Collins attended the Philadelphia public schools. After obtaining her bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in 1969, she earned a master of arts degree in teaching from Harvard University in 1970. Between 1970 and 1976, she was a teacher and curriculum specialist at St Joseph Community School, as well at two other community schools in Boston, Mass. She was Director of the African American Center at Tufts University between 1976 and 1980 before completing her doctorate in sociology at Brandeis in 1984. She is married to Roger L. Collins, a professor of education at the University of Cincinnati, and has one daughter, Valerie L. Collins. In 1990, her first book, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, was published. A revised tenth anniversary edition of the book was published in 2000 and it was translated into Korean in 2009.

Collins became an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati in 1982. In 1990, she published Black Feminist Thought which used a wide range of sources including fiction, poetry, music and oral history to look at Black feminist thought by such figures as Angela Davis, Alice Walker and Audre Lorde. Collins made three central claims in this book:

• Oppressions of race, class, gender, sexuality and nation are intersecting, mutually constructing systems of power.
• Because Black women have unique histories at the intersections of systems of power, they have created world views out of a need for self-definition and to work on behalf of social justice.
• Black women's specific experiences with intersecting systems of oppression provide a window into these same processes for other individuals and social groups.

Collins was the recipient of the C. Wright Mills Award in 1990. She was awarded the Jesse Barnard Award in 1993 for Black Feminist Thought. The book was gradually added to the reading lists of gender studies, sociology and ethnic studies courses throughout the US. Recognized as a social theorist who draws from many intellectual traditions, Collins's over 40 articles and essays have been published in a wide range of fields, including philosophy, history, psychology as well as sociology. She was appointed as Professor of African American Studies at the University of Cincinnati in 1993.

Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology edited with Margaret Andersen first published in 1992 is widely used in over 200 colleges and universities. The book is widely recognized for shaping the field of race, class and gender studies as well as its related concept of intersectionality. The sixth edition was published in 2007.

The University of Cincinnati named Collins the Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Sociology in 1996, the first African American and second woman to hold this position. She received Emeritus status in the Spring of 2005 and became professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Collins published a third book Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice in 1998. Fighting Words focused against discrimination against women in black communities and the role of black women as "outsiders within". Black Sexual Politics, published in 2004, argued that racism and heterosexism were intertwined and won the Distinguished Publication Award from the American Sociological Association. In 2006 she published From Black Power to Hip Hop : Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism, which examines the relationship between black nationalism, feminism and women in the hip-hop generation.

Her most recent books include Another Kind of Public Education: Race, Schools, the Media and Democratic Possibilities published in 2009 and The Handbook of Race and Ethnic Studies published in 2010.

The University of Maryland named Collins a Distinguished University Professor in 2006.

• Race, the Media, Schools, and Democratic Possibilities, ISBN 0-8070-0018-3, 2009
• Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism, ISBN 1-59213-092-5, 2006
• African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, ISBN 0-415-93099-5, 2005
• Black Women and the Search for Justice, ISBN 0-8166-2377-5, 1998
• An Anthology, ISBN 0-534-52879-1, co-edited w/ Margaret Andersen, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007
• Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, ISBN 0-415-92484-7, 1990, 2000

External references

• Article on Fighting Words
• From Black Power to Hip Hop (review)
• University of Maryland faculty page

Written References

• Gale Group, Contemporary Authors Online 2001 article on Patricia Hill Collins published on Biography Resource Centre 2005
• Feminist Authors St James Press 1996 article on Patricia Hill Collins Reproduced on Biography Resource Centre 2005
• "Patricia Hill Collins" World of Sociology 2 volumes Gale Group 2001 Reproduced on Biography Resource Centre 2005
• "Patricia Hill Collins" Directory of American Scholars 10th Edition Gale Group 2001
• "Dr Patricia Hill Collins Who's Who Among African-Americans 18th Edition Gale Group 2005
• Tonya Bolden, "Review of Black Feminist Thought" in Black Enterprise July 1992 v22 n12 page 12(1)
• Tamala M Edwards, "The F Word", Essence May 1999 volume 30 issue 1 page 90
• Katherine C. Adams review of Black Sexual Politics Library Journal April 1 2004 v129 i6 page 111

Patricia Hill Collins