ASPEN SUMMER WORDS 2012, JUNE 17-22 Literary Festival Speakers
Orlando Patterson is a Jamaican-born American writer known for his work regarding race in the United States, as well as the sociology of development. He is the author of numerous academic papers, five major academic books, three novels, and has contributed to a number of national publications including The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, and The Washington Post. Patterson was Special Advisor for Social Policy and Development to Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica. He was a founding member of Cultural Survival, one of the leading advocacy groups for the rights of indigenous peoples, and was for several years a board member of Freedom House, a major civic organization for the promotion of freedom and democracy around the world. He is the recipient of many awards, including the National Book Award for Non-Fiction which he won in 1991 for his book Freedom in the Making of Modern Culture. Patterson currently holds the John Cowles chair in Sociology at Harvard University and resides in Boston with his family.
