Gayatri Spivak

(Calcutta, 1942)

Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Considered to be one of the most influential thinkers in the contemporary world, she stands out for her critical contribution to the arrival of colonialism with fundamental texts such as Can the subaltern speak? (journal Wedge, 1985), an essential work of the so-called post-colonial studies. Furthermore, she was one of the first people to introduce the thinking of Jacques Derrida to the USA with the translation into English of Of Grammatology (1974, Johns Hopkins University Press), one of the foundational books of the deconstructionist theory. In recent years, much of her work has focussed on reflecting on the educational model in the context of post-colonialism and she has been working directly with teachers and school in India for this project. Her books also include In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (Routledge, 1987), The Post-Colonial Critic (Psychology Press, 1990) and Otras Asias (Akal Publishers, 2012).