Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak¡¯s decision to relocate from India to the US was perhaps motivated more by the feeling that she couldn¡¯t stay than because she wanted to go.?

It was 1960 and ¡°I had written a very harsh critique of the university, Calcutta University, from where I got my BA, in a journal of which I was the editor,¡± the Columbia University professor said. ¡°I was very young, but I was very precocious.¡±

She was informed by one of her teachers that she had, as a result of the essay, probably jeopardised her chances of securing a first in her master¡¯s course. Concerned about her prospects, Spivak took out a loan and, with ¡°18 dollars in my pocket and a one-way ticket¡±, travelled to the US.?

When she reads that critique now, she said, ¡°I think: my God, I was bold and brave, but I was also very stupid to have written that.¡±

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Whatever the motive, the decision to migrate to the US appears to be one that has paid off. Recently named the winner of the prestigious Holberg Prize, which recognises outstanding researchers in the humanities, social sciences, law and theology, Spivak is today regarded as a leading intellectual, known for her role in shaping modern literary criticism.?

Campus collection:?Higher education¡¯s role in upholding democracy

Her 1988 essay, ¡°Can the Subaltern Speak?¡±, which examines voice and power, has become a formative text within postcolonial studies and her translation and introduction to Jacques Derrida¡¯s Of Grammatology has also been paradigm-shifting. Alongside her work as an academic, Spivak has dedicated much of her time to establishing schools in rural West Bengal.

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Spivak is keen, however, to reject the notion that her work relates to so-called minorities or marginalised groups, describing this as a ¡°bit of an Orientalist vision¡±.?

¡°I¡¯m actually a Europeanist who teaches European material but never ignores the fact that there is an apartheid of education all over the world,¡± she says. ¡°I¡¯m very globally informed when I teach European material, but I am a Europeanist, that¡¯s what I teach.¡±

Asked about opportunities to access higher education for the Indian communities she works with ¨C at a time when the country is attempting to expand tertiary enrolment and improve equity ¨C Spivak explains that this is not her primary concern.?

¡°For me, education is not vocational, so I don¡¯t really think about sending them to higher education because I don¡¯t have that much respect for higher education myself,¡± she said.?

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Spivak decries the ¡°trivialisation¡± of the humanities by universities. ¡°They are not a cash cow, so they don¡¯t add to the revenue structure of these corporate universities, and that¡¯s the bottom line,¡± she said, while praising the Holberg Prize for its emphasis on the humanities ¨C a relatively uncommon occurrence today.?

At her schools, ¡°I teach the curriculum, but I tell the guardians that, if you feel that by coming to my schools, they will get jobs, then don¡¯t send them to the schools because I¡¯m not teaching here to get them an income.¡±

There is a misconception, she said, that she is just teaching literacy, ¡°which already shows the incredible kind of racism and classism that exists here¡±.

Instead, she says, she wants to see ¡°if it¡¯s possible to insert the intuitions of democracy in the children of the very poor¡± without ¡°talking about democracy¡±.?

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After all, children grow up to become voters. ¡°Because of the apartheid in education, the largest sectors of the electorate are choosing tyrants,¡± she said.?

At these schools, ¡°I teach with as much seriousness as I do at Columbia,¡± Spivak continued. ¡°We don¡¯t send our students, our children, to school to learn literacy.

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"There has to be some kind of content that moves, and you have to know a little more than just your letters and the numbers, but nobody seems to¡­think that they¡¯re insulting my work when they say that I have been forever very interested in literacy projects in the rural areas.¡±

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com