Hortense J. Spillers papers (Ms.2019.013)

Biographical/Historical Note

Hortense J. Spillers was born on April 24, 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee, where she grew up with two brothers and one sister. She attended Melrose High School before going on to earn her Bachelor of Arts and Master's degrees from the University of Memphis in 1964 and 1966 respectively. While at the University of Memphis, she served as a disc jockey for the all-Black radio station WDIA. Spillers then attended Brandeis University where, in 1969, she participated in the takeover of Ford Hall. Students who were dissatisfied with the racial climate on campus held an 11-day takeover that ultimately led to the establishment of the Department of African and African American Studies at Brandeis. After earning her Ph.D. in 1974, she went on to hold positions at Wellesley College, Haverford College, Cornell University, Emory University, and Vanderbilt University.

Spillers' research addresses psychoanalysis and race; the African diaspora; African-American literature and criticism; the representation of race in literature; linguistics; Black culture; and sexuality. She is best known for her 1987 article, "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book," one of the most cited essays in African-American literary studies today.

She is a member of the Modern Language Association and the Society for the Study of Narrative. Spillers has received numerous awards during her career, including most recently the Caribbean Philosophical Association's Nicolás Guillén Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, and the Brandeis University Alumni Achievement Award in 2019. Brandeis' Provost, Lisa Lynch described Spillers as a "pioneering professor, feminist scholar and critic whose contributions have influenced the landscape of African American literary studies and advanced Black feminist theory."