Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a preeminent scholar in Literature, renowned for his contributions to African and African American literary criticism and cultural studies. He received his B.A. in History, summa cum laude, from Yale University in 1973, and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Clare College, University of Cambridge, in 1979. Gates began his academic career with faculty positions at Yale University, followed by an appointment at Cornell University from 1985 to 1990 as Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Africana Studies. He then served at Duke University before joining Harvard University in 1991, where he holds the position of Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and appointments in the Department of African and African American Studies and the Department of English.

Gates's research specializations include African and African-American literature, cultural theory, Black history, genealogy, and genetics. He discovered and edited the first known novel by an African American woman, Hannah Crafts's The Bondwoman’s Narrative (2001), donating the manuscript to Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Library. Key publications encompass The Black Box: Writing the Race (2024), The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song (2021), Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow (2019), Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow (2019, with Tonya Bolden), and 100 Amazing Facts about the Negro (2017), alongside edited volumes such as the Image of the Black in Latin American and Caribbean Art series (2023-2024). An acclaimed filmmaker, he has produced and hosted Emmy-nominated PBS series Finding Your Roots (twelfth season ongoing) and documentaries like GOSPEL (2024) and Black and Jewish America (2026). Among his major awards are the MacArthur Fellowship (1981), National Humanities Medal (1998, first for an African American scholar), NAACP Spingarn Medal (2024), honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge and London School of Economics, and fellowships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and British Academy. Gates formerly chaired the Pulitzer Prize board and serves on boards including the New York Public Library and NAACP Legal Defense Fund, profoundly influencing scholarship and public discourse on African American culture.

Professional Email: gates@harvard.edu