A literary theorist who was best known for the important post-colonial work Can the Subaltern Speak? She also won the Padma Bhushan award.
She earned her M.A. in English from Cornell University.
She became the first non-white University Professor at Columbia University in its over 260-year history.
She was married to Writer Talbot Spivak for a short time in the 1960s.
She and French poet Aime Cesaire both spoke out against colonialism.
