Gates To Remain at Harvard

Ending a year of uncertainty over the future of Harvard’s Afro-American Studies Department, DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. announced today that he will remain at the University.

Gates, the chair of the department, said that he will remain in Cambridge to lay the groundwork for the department’s future.

“I thought it was best, given the departures of my dear friends Anthony Appiah and Cornel West, that I remain behind to maintain stability as the department attempts to rebuild,” he said.

Gates explained that he aims to recruit five new professors, building on the recent appointments of Michael C. Dawson in Government and Afro-American Studies and Evelynn Hammonds in Afro-American studies and History of Science.

Gates also said he is concerned with overseeing the department’s fledgling Ph.D program—a program that he said is “still quite vulnerable.”

Yesterday’s announcement brought to an end a year-long period of uncertainty over Gates’ academic future.

He has been publicly considering an offer to join the faculty of Princeton University since last year’s departures of West and Appiah. Rumors circulated this fall that he was looking at buying property in the Princeton area.

Gates said West’s conflict with University President Lawrence H. Summers made him question the University’s committment to Afro-American Studies, a doubt which he said has since been put to rest.

Summers expressed deep committment to the department and to the field in a statement released yesterday.

“Harvard University is committed to remaining pre-eminent in Afro-American Studies,” Summers said in a written statement. “I am delighted that Professor Gates will continue his leadership of our Department of Afro-American Studies and of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research.”

Gates said he received an outpouring of support from the community as he struggled to make his decision, and he said that support was a significant factor in his decision.

“The expression of support form the president, the dean, the Faculty, my colleagues and students, all of that meant a lot to me,” Gates said.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.