2011 Nellie Y. McKay Lecture in the Humanities:
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University
Professor Gates’ talk will deepen the community-wide discussion of ethics and race launched this fall through the Go Big Read! program. Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, the Institute for Research in the Humanities, the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate, the Office of the Provost, and the General Library System.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is a literary critic, cultural historian, writer, editor, television producer, and public intellectual. He is the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African-American Research, and co-edited “The Norton Anthology of African American Literature” with Nellie McKay. In addition to his extensive scholarly publications, he has helped call attention to African American experiences through projects like his 2006 PBS documentary “African American Lives,” the first documentary series to employ genealogy and genetic science to provide an understanding of African American history. He is 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, and of “The Root,” an online news magazine dedicated to coverage of African American news, culture, and genealogy.
This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Research in the Humanities and the Center for the Humanities.