Gayatri Spivak

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic.[1]She is University Professor at Columbia University, where she is a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.[2]

Considered one of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals, Spivak is best known for her essay Can the Subaltern Speak? and for her translation of and introduction to Jacques Derrida‘s De la grammatologie. She also translated such works of Mahasweta Devi as Imaginary Maps and Breast Stories into English and with separate critical appreciation on the texts and Devi’s life and writing style in general.

Spivak was awarded the 2012 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for being “a critical theorist and educator speaking for the humanities against intellectual colonialism in relation to the globalized world.” In 2013, she received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award given by the Republic of India.