Camille Anna Paglia (born 2 April 1947 in Endicott, New York) is an American author, teacher, social critic and dissident feminist. Since 1984 Paglia has been a Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, published in 1990, became a bestseller.
Paglia is an intellectual of many seeming contradictions: an atheist who respects religion and a classicist who champions art both high and low, with a view that human nature has an inherently dangerous Dionysian aspect, especially the wilder, darker sides of human sexuality. She favors a curriculum grounded in comparative religion, art history and the literary canon, with a greater emphasis on facts in the teaching of history.
She came to public attention in 1990, with the publication of her first book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. Her notoriety as the author of this book made it possible for her to write on popular culture and feminism in mainstream newspapers and magazines. Paglia challenged what she has called the "liberal establishment", including academia, feminist advocacy groups such as National Organization for Women (NOW), and AIDS activists ACT UP.
Paglia wrote a column for Salon.com from its inception in 1995 until 2001. Paglia rejoined Salon in February 2007. She is a contributing editor at Interview magazine and is on the editorial board of the classics and humanities journal Arion. Paglia is currently writing her third collection of essays and a companion volume to Break, Blow, Burn dealing with the visual arts rather than poetry.
