Writer, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Daimler Fellow - Class of Spring 2014
Leslie Dunton-Downer holds a PhD with Distinction in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, where she was a lecturer and remains a member of the Society of Fellows. Her most book The English Is Coming!: How One Language is Sweeping the World (Touchstone, 2011), she examined the global roots and reach of the English language. Her previous work ranges from several opera librettos and a documentary about the Eiffel Tower for French television, to recordings of sacred and secular music from Tajikistan, produced for the Parisian record label Buda Musique. Additional travels have taken Dunton-Downer to Marrakesh, Morocco, to lead author residency workshops hosted by the Global Diversity Foundation to further the education of girls in the Atlas Mountains. In the fall of 2013 she completed the California Mission Ride, a horseback journey and documentary-film project connecting the 21 Native American and Spanish colonial missions of California. Back in Cambridge, where Dunton-Downer is based, she is a current trustee of the Harvard Advocate and a former trustee of the International School of Boston.