Mary Louise Pratt is Professor Emerita at
the New York University. She is associated with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the departments of Social and Cultural Analysis, Latino Studies, and Spanish and Portuguese. She has written extensively about a 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. Pratt’s publications include ‘Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse’ and the seminal, ‘Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation’. A former president of the Modern Language Association, Pratt has received numerous honors, grants, and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies.