Feminist social critic and author bell hooks, Distinguished Writer-In-Residence at Berea College and Daya Singh Sandhu, professor of counseling psychology at the University of Louisville, are the guest speakers for Diversity in Spirituality: Implications for Wellness, a campus-wide symposium scheduled Thursday, Nov. 3, from 1:30-3:30 in Phelps Stokes Chapel.

hooks and Sandhu will address the issue of health and spirituality in the context of an institution with a Christian identity – hooks from her perspective as a Buddhist practitioner and Sandhu from his own Sikh perspective. Questions, answers and dialogue will follow as part of the presentation. Admission is free and open to the public.

The symposium is co-sponsored by Berea’s Campus Christian Center and Counseling and Psychological Services (Health Services).

hooks, Distinguished Professor of English at City College in N.Y, is currently in the second year of a three year term at Berea as Distinguished Writer-in-residence. Primarily known as a feminist thinker, hooks’ writings cover a broad range of topics on gender, race, teaching, and the significance of media for contemporary culture. She is the author of 25 books, including works for children, most recently “The Will to Change: men, masculinity, and love” (2004) and a 10-book series for children called “Teach Love, Be Love.”

Born and raised in Hopkinsville, Ky., hooks changed her name from Gloria Jean Watkins to bell hooks (not capitalized) in honor of her mother and grandmother. She has said that both the pseudonym and the decapitalization are attempts to take the reader’s focus away from the author and place it on the content of the work. She received her B.A. from Stanford University, M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Before teaching at City College, hooks served as professor of English at Yale University and at Oberlin College.

At Berea, hooks is currently leading a semester long seminar for students and faculty participants on “Creating Beloved Community.”

Sandhu is a teacher and scholar in school and multicultural counseling, spirituality, and career counseling and is the author or editor of 15 books, including several textbooks. Among his books in progress is “Spirituality: A Multicultural Perspective.” During 2001-02, Sandhu was a Fulbright Research Scholar in India. He has received several awards for his teaching and scholarship from the University of Louisville and professional associations. Sandhu earned his Ed.D. in Counselor Education from Mississippi State University