Mary Louise Pratt

Pratt is an influential theorist of Latin American studies and language rights. She has written extensively about an impressive range of cultural productions--from travel writing to the circulation of religious figures to foundational narratives--that reappear as populations move through and beyond the hemisphere. Her ground-breaking Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (1992) and her notion of "the contact zone", has reoriented the thinking about cultural encounters in the Americas and beyond. Pratt has been a vocal advocate for bi- and multi-lingual education as a necessary literacy for the 21st century--central to extending mutual understanding among communities in the U.S., the Americas, and beyond.