Henry Gates Research Paper

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Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born in 16th September, 1950, in West Virginia, Keyser. He studied and traveled globally before he became department head in African-American studies, at Harvard University. Henry Gates is an acclaimed critic and author who has disclosed a wide range of literary gems. He is an educator, an American literary critic, a writer, a scholar, as well as an editor. Henry was the first black person to be offered a fellowship by the Mellon Foundation. On top of that, he has received several honorary awards and degrees for his research, development, and teaching of academic institutions to learn the black culture (Dorman 135). Gates was chosen, in 2012, to offer the Jefferson Lecture. In addition, this was done for the purpose …show more content…

At Harvard, Henry teaches graduate and undergraduate courses as a professor of the Alphonse Fletcher University. In 2006, Henry was appointed as a professor of English. In addition, he serves as the W. E. B. Director (Greene 12). As a theorist and a critic, Henry Gates has managed to merge deconstruction literary techniques with literacy traditions of Native Americans. Henry Gates has proved a public figure, as well as a black intellectual. He has been a critic who is outspoken on the Eurocentric literary canon. Henry insists that black literature has to be assessed through the artistic criteria of its origin culture (Kjelle …show more content…

In 1995, he presented a program known as the Great railway Journeys in the BBC series. In addition, Gates has been the co-producer and host of the African American Lives in 2006 and the African American Lives 2 in 2008. In 2010, Henry hosted the Faces of America which got presented through the PBS. He has, since 1985, held the jury chair position in the Awards of Anisfield-Wolf Book that honor written works, which contribute societal understanding of the racism, as well as the human culture diversity. In 1989, Henry Gates was the winner of the Anisfield prize. On the other hand, he hosted Finding Your Roots-alongside Henry Louis Jr., which was PBS TV series that aired in 2012. Gates wrote, in 2010, an op-ed on The New York Times, which discussed the role Africans played in the slave trade. One of the most controversial events in Henry Gates’ life is what the media and the whole American society termed as the Cambridge arrest. The incident prompted a politically stimulated an exchange of perspectives regarding law enforcement and race relations all over the United States (Gates and Evelyn

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