Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities
Director of the W.E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research
Harvard University
Born September 16, 1950 (1950-09-16) (age 58) Piedmont, West Virginia, United States Occupation Author, essayist, literary critic, professor Nationality United States Genres Essay, history, literature Subjects African American Studies
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African-American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, and he has received multiple honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and development of academic institutions to study black culture. In 2002, Gates was selected to give the Jefferson Lecture, in recognition of his "distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities." The lecture resulted in his 2003 book, The Trials of Phillis Wheatley. As the host of the 2006 and 2008 PBS television miniseries African American Lives, Gates explored the genealogy of prominent African Americans. Gates sits on the boards of many notable arts, cultural, and research institutions, and currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, where he is Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
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