Rate Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Academic Profile

Academic Background: Ph.D. in English, University of Cambridge, 1979; B.A. in History, Yale University, 1973.

Research Interests: African American literature, cultural studies, and genealogy.

Appointments: Visiting Professor, Cornell University (formerly full-time, 1985–1990); Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University.

Awards: National Humanities Medal (1998); MacArthur Fellowship (1981); Emmy Award for Finding Your Roots (2016).

Publications:

• The Signifying Monkey (Oxford University Press, 1988).
• Colored People: A Memoir (Knopf, 1994).

Additional Contributions: Host and producer of PBS’s Finding Your Roots; editor of The Norton Anthology of African American Literature.