Berkley Center

Robert Patterson is a professor of African American studies and served as the inaugural chair of the Department of African American Studies at Georgetown University (2016–2019). He is teaching a spring 2021 class supported through the Berkley Center's Doyle Seminars project. Patterson is the author of Destructive Desires: Rhythm and Blues Culture and the Politics of Racial Equality (2019) and Exodus Politics: Civil Rights and Leadership in African American Literature and Culture (2013), co-editor of The Psychic Hold of Slavery: Legacies in American Expressive Culture (2016, with Soyica Colbert), and editor of Black Cultural Production After Civil Rights (2019). Currently, he is working on a book titled Black Equity, Black Equality: Reparation and Black Communities. Patterson has worked with governmental agencies, school systems, and other organizations to develop solutions that increase diversity, cultivate inclusion, and provide equity of access and outcomes. Patterson holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from Emory University.