Earl Shorris (Chicago, 25 June 1936 – New York City, 27 May 2012) was an American writer and social critic. He is best known for establishing the Clemente Course in the Humanities, named after baseball great and humanitarian Roberto Clemente. The Clemente Course is an "educational institution founded in 1995 to teach the humanities at the college level to people living in economic distress." He was critical of Western culture as "sliding towards plutocracy and materialism." It promotes employment, personal agency and social inclusion building up "ideas of hope, meaning, and identity into the personal" lives and narratives of participants.