Oral history interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, 2015

Biographical Note

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is a University Professor at Columbia University, and a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. She received her B.A. in English (First Class Honors) from Presidency College, Calcutta, 1959 and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Cornell University in 1967. Her areas of interest are 19th and 20th-century literature, politics of culture, feminism, Marx, Derrida, and globalization

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak discusses her decision to come teach at Columbia University, drawn by New York City, her friend and colleague Palestinian literary theoretician Edward Said, and IRWGS. Spivak shares the topics she explored at IRWGS-feminism and psychoanalysis, global feminism, feminism and de-colonization-and her role in the foundation of Columbia's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. Spivak discusses the nature of the discipline of comparative literature and its relationship to other departments. Spivak goes on to talk about gender studies and the climate for feminism at other institutions, including: the University of Pittsburgh, Emory University, University of Texas Austin, University of Iowa, and Cornell University. Spivak also discusses feminism in her childhood and her unconventional upbringing in India. Spivak addresses tokenism and the challenges of being a female professor of color. She also talks about her Rural Education Project, her activism, her mother's activism, and being inspired by Malcolm X. Spivak addresses her work with the writings of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, including a discussion of a seminar based on his work as well as the origins of her relationship with the work of Derrida and her undertaking of another translation at the time of the interview. This leads to a broader discussion of the current nature of translation, research, and higher learning. Spivak discusses the concepts of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work in relationship to both individuals and institutions. Spivak speculates about the future directions of IRWGS, especially in relationship to its exploration of queer/LGBTQ studies, and IRWGS classes she would like to teach

Subjects

• College teachers--Interviews.
• Columbia University. Institute for Research on Women and Gender.
• Derrida, Jacques.
• Feminism and higher education--United States.
• Feminist theory.
• Gay and lesbian studies--United States.
• Interdisciplinary approach in education.
• Interviews.
• Murphy, Kristin L., interviewer.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty--Interviews.
• Translating and interpreting.
• Women's studies.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2015