Bulletin

Issue: October 2006

News

Privatisation of freedom in America

Professor Orlando Patterson – John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University – delivered this year’s La Trobe University Bernard Bailyn Lecture. Professor Patterson, left, is one of the most outstanding sociologists of slavery, race relations and freedom in America. His work has been acknowledged regularly with leading awards in the United States and elsewhere.

He has also pursued distinguished roles as a political adviser and public intellectual, serving as special adviser to Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Michael Manley, from 1972 –1980 and contributing regularly to public debates about the great problems which beset American society.

A novelist, short story writer and essayist, he won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 1991 and his articles appear regularly in such publications as The New York Times, Newsweek and the New Republic.

Professor Patterson spoke on The Privatisation of Freedom in America: What it Means and its Consequences, discussing his recent research on the deeper meanings of freedom held by Americans.

The Bailyn Lecture is presented annually to mark the University’s expertise in North American studies.

La Trobe also awarded Professor Patterson the degree Doctor of Letters, (honoris causa), in recognition of his ‘scholarship, literary accomplishment and contribution to public debate’, noting that at Harvard and elsewhere, Professor Patterson has had extended contact with members of the University – a connection that enabled La Trobe to bring such a prominent scholar to Australia.

The degree citation also noted that Professor Patterson’s scholarly influence has been extremely widespread: ‘An early piece of his on Caribbean cricket, for example, has inspired a sociological and historical subculture investigating the links between cricket and other forms of popular culture, slavery, post-slavery and modern nationbuilding. ‘