Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

"Living with the Humanities"

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is University Professor and the Director of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. B.A. English (Honors), Presidency College, Calcutta, 1959. Ph.D. Comparative Literature, Cornell University, 1967. D. Litt, University of Toronto, 1999; D. Litt, Univeristy of London, 2003.

Why is it important to support and protect humanities research in an era of globalization? As the IHR's 2009 Distinguished Lecturer, Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak of Columbia University addressed that question historically, in a context somewhat broader than Europe and the U.S. Her talk tracked the role of humanities-work both inside and beyond the university, especially through the contributions of today’s public intellectuals. She also addressed contemporary curtailments of academic freedom and their implications for the future of the humanities.