NEWS INDEX Archives 2004 November

Harvard sociologist to talk about Americans' conception of freedom

Mark Reutter, Business Editor
217-333-0568

11/3/04

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Orlando Patterson, a sociologist at Harvard University, will deliver the annual David C. Baum Memorial Lecture on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights at the University of Illinois College of Law.

His talk, “What Americans Really Mean by Freedom (and What it Means for Democracy),” will begin at 4 p.m. on Nov. 10 (Wednesday) at the Max L. Rowe Auditorium of the Law Building, 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave., Champaign.

Patterson has written extensively on the intersecting problems of slavery race, immigration and multiculturalism. He is the author of “Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study,” which focuses on Jamaica, and is completing a trilogy on slavery and integration in the United States.

In his lecture, he will describe the “coherent core of meanings beneath the surface variations of Americans’ talk about freedom as well as the experiences they most identify with being free.” His findings throw “somewhat disturbing light on the nature, practice and possible future of democracy in contemporary America.”

The Baum lecture is free and open to the public.