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Henry Louis Gates, Jr. |
Preeminent writer, scholar and critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will speak at ISU at 7:30 p.m. on April 12 in the University Galleries. The speech is part of the University’s sesquicentennial celebration and is free and open to the public. Gates has used his position as one of the country's most respected scholars to promote his theory of education reform, which calls for the expansion of black studies programs at universities nationwide and a broadening of the literature curriculum to include in-depth study of the works of authors from non-Western cultures.
In 2006, Gates wrote and produced the PBS documentary "African American Lives." He recently completed his book, “Finding Oprah’s Roots: Finding Your Own,” which stems from his documentary and traces Oprah Winfrey’s roots to Liberia and her first known matrilineal ancestor, a woman sold into slavery. Previously, Gates wrote and produced the documentaries "Wonders of the African World" (2000) and "America Beyond the Color Line" (2004) for the BBC and PBS, and authored the companion volumes to both series.
Gates graduated from Yale in 1973. He took a year off as an undergraduate to travel to East Africa, where he worked in a hospital as an anesthetist. He earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge University where he studied under Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka. Gates was the university's first black American to earn a Ph.D. He won the MacArthur Genius Award in 1981. Currently, he serves as the W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities and the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Gates is also the Editor in Chief of the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource in the field of African American Studies and Africana Studies.
A free reception will immediately follow the speech. Public parking is available for $4 at the School St. Parking Deck at the corner of School and Beaufort Streets.