biography
| name: |
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1950– )
|
| biography:
| Educator, born in Keyser, West Virginia, USA. He studied at Yale (1973) and was the first African-American to receive a PhD from Cambridge University, UK (1979). Sometimes called a ‘literary archaeologist’, he unearthed, edited, and compiled important African-American texts, especially from the slavery period. In addition to his scholarly work, he increasingly wrote and spoke about broader issues relevant to African-Americans and their relations to society at large. His fame made him the subject of ‘bidding wars’ between major universities, and he taught at Yale (1979–85), Cornell (1985–90), and Duke (1990–1, professorship). Since 1991 he has headed the Department of Afro-American Studies at Harvard. |
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