Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (born September 16, 1950 in Piedmont , West Virginia ) is an American literary and cultural scholar . He is regarded as an outstanding representative of " African American studies ", the research into the history and culture of black Americans.
Life
He graduated from Yale with a BA in history in 1973 . With a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation , he continued his studies at Clare College of the University of Cambridge in the subject English literature continued. In 1979 he finished his studies there with an MA and a Ph.D. in English and became Assistant Professor of English and Afro-American Studies at Yale that same year. A close connection to Wole Soyinka , whom Gates refers to as a mentor , dates back to this time . He stayed at Yale until 1985, most recently as an associate professor, from 1985 to 1990 he taught at Cornell University , then at Duke University . Since 1991 he has held the Chair of Afro-American Studies and Professor of English American Literature and Director of the WEB Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard .
He is considered "the nation's most famous black scholar". He has received numerous awards for his research on African American culture . Gates is a member of many academic bodies and cultural institutes. He has worked on various films as a writer, consultant or presenter. In 1981 he was a MacArthur Fellow . He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993 , the American Philosophical Society in 1995, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999.
Cambridge Police Incident
Gates received media attention with the so-called Cambridge Police Incident on July 16, 2009. When he returned from a trip, the door of his house jammed, so he had to shake the door with a taxi driver - also a black man. This caused neighbors to call the police. What happened after the police officer arrived is controversial. The police report said Gates was arrested for resisting state authority after he became loud and abusive. Among other things, he is said to have accused the police officer of arresting him because he was black. The US President Barack Obama , who is personally friends with Gates, initially criticized the behavior of the police. On July 25, 2009, Obama apologized for his criticism at a press conference and admitted that he should have expressed himself differently. He invited Gates and the officer who arrested him to a reconciliation meeting in the White House on July 30th.
Publications
- Colored times. A youth in America. Diogenes, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-257-06149-8 .
- The secret of Anatole Broyard (= Literatures. 2001, 7/8, Special, ISSN 1616-3451 ). Friedrich-Berlin-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Berlin 2001.
- Dictionary of African Biography . 1st edition. Volumes 1 to 6. Oxford University Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 ; together with Emmanuel K. Akyeampong
Web links
- Literature by and about Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in the catalog of the German National Library
- Personal page at Harvard University
- Henry Gates' CV (PDF; 117 kB)
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Kinsley: Profiling in Shades of Gray . In: Washington Post , July 24, 2009.
- ↑ Obama's friend in handcuffs . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 25, 2009.
- ↑ Article in the Tagesspiegel of July 26, 2009, accessed on July 26, 2009.
- ↑ spiegel.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gates, Henry Louis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gates, Skip; Gates, Henry L. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American literary and cultural scholar |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 16, 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Piedmont, West Virginia |