Sylvia Hart Wright

ABOUT SYLVIA HART WRIGHT

Over her long and productive life, Sylvia has combined a flair for bold thought and action with a drive to make the world a better place. Her latest book, a memoir, is ACTIVIST ODYSSEY: INSIDE PROTEST MOVEMENTS, SOME OF WHICH WORKED. It’s been described as a “remarkable life adventure...A smart, straight-talking account by an author who courageously followed her beliefs.” — Kirkus Reviews.

Steeped in the principles of nonviolent activism since her early days in Berkeley in the sixties, Sylvia has worked behind the scenes and on the front lines for peace and justice -- civil rights and abortion rights, sheltering the homeless, and for other progressive causes here and abroad. Meanwhile she’s managed to prosper through escapades and marriages, loves and losses, to build a career as a college professor (now retired) and writer.

A skilled researcher with a knack for organizing information about underexplored subjects into lively, readable books, Sylvia Hart Wright has written primarily on the social sciences and architecture. For her earlier book, WHEN SPIRITS COME CALLING, she interviewed 78 everyday Americans who believed they'd sensed contacts with dead relatives or close friends. In it she reports their dramatic stories in their own words, analyzes elements in their personal histories that might make some more psychic than others, and describes how experiences of apparent contact with the dead are viewed in different cultures and faith traditions around the world.

Her two guides to American architecture—HIGHLIGHTS OF RECENT AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE and SOURCEBOOK OF CONTEMPORARY NORTH AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE--provide readers with tools for identifying examples of specific types of buildings, and leading architectural projects by location. BLACK YOUTH, BLACK STUDIES AND URBAN EDUCATION reports on the relative levels of interest shown by African-American students in publications on a wide range of subjects including Black Studies.

Hart Wright holds degrees from Cornell, Columbia and New York University and is a professor emeritus at the City College of New York.