African-American studies scholar Henry Louis ("Skip") Gates of Harvard University will visit the campus on Monday, Oct. 20, as a guest of the Chubb Fellowship of Timothy Dwight College.
Professor Gates will present the year's first Chubb Lecture, titled "The Black-Jewish Relationship," at 4:30 p.m. in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. The event is free and open to the public.
That evening, 8:30-9:30 p.m., Professor Gates will meet with Yale College students at a dessert reception in the Afro-American Cultural Center, 211 Park St. Students interested in attending should call 432-4131.
A 1973 graduate of Yale College, where he majored in history, Professor Gates also holds degrees in English langauge and literature from Clare College, University of Cambridge. He taught English and African-American studies at Yale 1979-85 and at Cornell University 1985-90 before joining the faculty at Harvard University in 1991. There, he is currently the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research.
Professor Gates is the author of "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man," "Colored People: A Memoir," "Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars," "The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism" and "Figures in Black: Words, Signs and the Racial Self." He is general editor of "The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature" and is coeditor of Transition magazine, which was designated as the "Best New Journal in the Social Sciences and the Humanities" in 1993 by the Association of American Publishers. A staff writer for The New Yorker, Mr. Gates has published essays, reviews, interviews and profiles in both scholarly and popular publications.
An outspoken advocate of affirmative action, Professor Gates serves on numerous academic and civil boards and committees, including the Schomburg Commission for the Preservation of Black Culture and the American Civil Liberties Union National Advisory Council. In addition to fellowships from the Ford and Mellon foundations, his numerous honors include a MacArthur Prize, the Zora Neale Hurston Society Award for Cultural Scholarship, the Norman Rabb Award of the American Jewish Committee and the Tikkun National Ethics Award.
The Chubb Fellowship is devoted to encouraging and aiding students interested in the operation of government and in public service careers. The program was established in 1936 by Hendon Chubb, a member of the Class of 1895S, and is based in Timothy Dwight College.