Upcoming Events
2025 Black Faculty Speaker Series: Collective Community Vision
This year’s theme for the Black Faculty Speaker Series is Collective Community Vision featuring renowned historian Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. This series aims to give a powerful exploration of community building as a collective practice, guided by an inclusive vision that often transcends societal expectations.
Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. | Friday, March 28, 2025
Fireside Chat
For U of A faculty, students, and staff.
Friday, Mar. 28
3 - 4 p.m.
Holsclaw Hall, College of Fine Arts
Registration Information Coming Soon
Public Lecture
Open to the public, free of charge.
Friday, Mar. 28
6 - 7 p.m.
Centennial Hall
Ticket Information Coming Soon
Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, and journalist Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is an acclaimed cultural critic and institution builder. Professor Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Among his dozens of books are the recent New York Times bestsellers Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow and The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song. He has also produced and hosted an array of documentary films. The Black Church (PBS) and Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (HBO), which he executive produced, each received Emmy nominations. His latest history series for PBS is Making Black America: Through the Grapevine. Finding Your Roots, Gates’s groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series, is now in its tenth season on PBS.
Professor Gates has received countless awards and honors, including a George Polk Award for his social commentary in The New York Times, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Chicago Tribune Literary Award for lifetime achievement, and the prestigious Gold Medal from the National Institute of Social Sciences, among many others. His filmmaking has received Emmy, Peabody, and NAACP Image Awards, as well as an Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award. Recently, he the coveted Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. Professor Gates serves on the boards of many notable institutions, including: the New York Public Library, the Aspen Institute, and the Brookings Institution, and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. A consummate scholar and esteemed public intellectual, Professor Gates is a highly sought-after keynote speaker for his riveting addresses to audiences of all kinds.
Emmy and Peabody Award-Winning Filmmaker, Literary Scholar, Journalist, Cultural Critic, and Institution Builder
New York Times Bestselling Author of Over 30 Books, including 'Stony the Road' and 'The Black Church'
Host, 'Finding Your Roots' on PBS
Alphonse Fletcher University Professor & Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University
Planning Team
Coordination of the series is supported by the Office of the Provost.
Nina Bates, Director of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Provost
Odette Vargas, Event Planner, Office of the Provost