IPFW Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and the Omnibus Lecture Series at Indiana Purdue University Fort Wayne during Black History presents Henry Louis Gates, Jr to the local community. Gates lecture is entitled, Genealogy and Genetics and the African-American Experience . Gates was born on Sept. 16, 1950, is a scholar, college teacher, critic, writer and chairperson read more about Gates below.
From the IPFW Website:
Henry Louis Gates Jr, one of the United States’ most influential cultural critics, is both an eloquent commentator and formidable intellectual force on multicultural and African American issues. He is widely acknowledged for taking African American studies beyond the ideological bent of the 1970s and 80s black power movement, and bringing it into a scholarly sphere that is the equivalent to all other disciplines. He is currently 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 Studies at Harvard University.
In 1997, Gates was named one of Time magazine’s “25 most influential Americans.” He is a prolific writer who has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited several books and written numerous articles. His books include Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man and The Future of the Race with co-author and Princeton professor Cornell West. His articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Time, The New Republic, and The New York Times. Gates is also the editor of Transition magazine, an international review of African, Carribean, and African American politics.
In 2006, he wrote and produced the PBS documentary African American Lives, the first documentary series to employ genealogy and science to provide an understanding of African American history. His current projects include a sequel to African American Lives, as well as a documentary titled Finding Oprah’s Roots, where he expands on one of the most popular individuals featured in African American Lives.
Gates’ honors and grants include a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and the George Polk Award for Social Commentary, a national humanities medal. Gates has also received more than 40 honorary degrees.
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