Head of Harvard black studies coming to Institute

Henry Louis Gates to take year’s sabbatical.

By: Jeff Milgram
   Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Harvard, will join the Institute for Advanced Study this fall as a visiting professor. He will continue his post at Harvard, but will join the Institute during a sabbatical.
   His one-year appointment, first reported on the Web site of the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, was confirmed Wednesday by Institute press officer Georgia Whidden.
   Professor Gates is considered to be one of the most distinguished and productive black scholars in America. At the Institute, he will join the faculties of the Institute’s School of Historical Studies and School of Social Sciences.
   Ms. Whidden called it extremely rare for a professor to join more than one faculty.
   Professor Gates was in Ghana this week and not available for comment.
   Princeton University had previously tried to recruit Professor Gates, one of three high-profile black scholars at Harvard who had a falling-out with President Lawrence H. Summers. Philosophers Cornel West and K. Anthony Appiah defected from Harvard to Princeton this past fall following the much-publicized argument between Professor West and the president, in which the president criticized the professor’s grading policy and extra-curricular political activities.
   "Professor Gates has consistently indicated a possible interest in joining the faculty of Princeton University," according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. "His appointment to the Institute for Advanced Study suggests the possibility that this may be a first step in a permanent move to Princeton."
   The Boston Globe reported Nov. 3 that Professor Gates had been looking for housing in the New York metropolitan area, heightening anxiety at Harvard that he had decided to leave.
   Professor Gates said he has been seriously considering Princeton’s standing offer to join its faculty since last year, when the conflict between Professor West and Dr. Summers led him to question Harvard’s commitment to the field of African American studies.
   But Professor Gates has said that Dr. Summers and Harvard’s Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby — along with many professors and students — have gone out of their way to prove Harvard’s commitment to both the department and to improving diversity at the university at large.
   "Everyone’s been great from the president and Dean Kirby to my colleagues in Afro-American studies and the DuBois Institute and the students," Professor Gates told the Harvard Crimson in November. "No one needs to do anything more. It’s great to be part of this community and feel so welcomed by it."
   Ultimately, Professor Gates said in November, his decision will depend on several personal factors, including whether he feels he can work so far away from Professor Appiah.
   Professor Gates was reportedly deeply troubled by Professor Appiah’s departure last year, as the two are close personal and professional friends. They met as students at Cambridge University in 1973 and have spent most of their academic careers working at the same institutions.
   "What I have to figure out is if I can live without Anthony Appiah, and only time will tell," Professor Gates said in a published interview last spring.
   Even though he’s not coming to the university, Princeton President Shirley Tilghman is exciting that Dr. Gates, whose nickname is Skip, will be working nearby.
   "We hope we can interact with him,’ Dr. Tilghman said. "Skip is a great scholar. … The more we can expose Skip to the rich environment of Princeton, the better off we are."
   Editor Bruce Slater said the journal had picked up the rumor that Professor Gates was coming to the Institute several weeks ago.
   Coming on the wake of the permanent departures of professors West and Appiah, Professor Gates’ departure from Harvard, even if temporary, severely reduces the academic strength of Harvard’s Afro-American studies department, the journal said.
   "Professor Gates is entitled to a sabbatical, which is expected to begin on July 1," said Harvard College spokesman Bob Mitchell. "What he plans on doing then, you’ll have to ask him."
   The Institute is an independent, private institution dedicated to the encouragement, support and patronage of learning through fundamental research and definitive scholarship across a wide range of fields.
   Since its founding in 1930, the Institute has been home to some of the most highly regarded thinkers of the 20th century, including Albert Einstein and John von Neumann. It also draws promising young postdoctoral researchers and senior scholars from around the world.