gates rebuilds afro-am

Two years ago the Afro-American Studies Department Was in shambles. This year, DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr. started putting the pieces together, one by one.

The result, scholars say, is far from a finished product, but it is a strong beginning.

In his first year at Harvard, Gates says, his immediate goal was "to see Afro-American Studies move from the margin to the center of intellectual life at Harvard,"

And to move his department away from the margin, Gates worked over the past year to create a cohesive program that focused on literature and culture.

Gates' longtime associate, K. Anthony Appiah, oversaw the backbone of the program--the restructuring of the undergraduate tutorial system.

Appiah, who serves as a professor of Afro-American Studies and the department's head tutor, attempted to develop a more cohesive program this year, altering the tutorial system and creating a survey course open to all undergraduates.

Appiah and Gates' efforts have won at least one scholar back to the fold.

Professor of Sociology Orlando Patterson, who at times has been critical of the Afro-Am Department, says he thinks that Gates fulfilled much of the promise he brought to the University last fall.

Patterson applauds the creation of "a program rather than just a hodgepodge of courses brought in. That's what I've always thought was necessary."

Because of the restructuring, Patterson says he now plans to cross-list his courses with Afro-Am and will be involved in the department as an affiliated faculty member.

Professor of English and American Languages Philip J. Fisher says Afro-Am is now "on the map as a great department, and as a department doing something as yet unfinished, but very ambitious."

Fisher says the stabilized department is now ready for growth out of the humanities and into other scholarly fields.

"I think it's one of the great successes of the last two years here," Fisher says. "The next step is how do you get the great sociologists, political theorists, and other components of a department like that."

But Patterson says that to branch out too far would be a misstep. The emphasis on the humanities was a deliberate choice, Patterson says--and a good one, given the limited resources available.

Patterson notes that department leaders "were not too enthusiastic about certain kinds of [joint] appointments in political science and sociology."

And even if Afro-Am turns toward the social sciences in the future, Patterson says. "They should stick to the cultural end of sociology and politics...rather than the more hard-core sort of studies of poverty and inequality."

In addition to forging a niche and a speciality for Afro-Am, Gates says he is trying to ensure that the department is seen as a legitimate academic institution.

Gates says the department must avoid the "voodoo Egyptology and anti-Semitism epitomized by [controversial City University of New York professor] Leonard Jeffries."

Gates' brand of scholarship--which he describes in his new book, Loose Canons, as exploring the hyphen in African-American--rejects the more Afrocentric approaches of Jeffries and some other prominent Black scholars.

His attitude toward Afro-American studies has led some undergraduates to question his ability to speak for Black Harvard students. But Gates says he doesn't consider that his role.

"No one speaks for the student the students speak for themselves," he says. "The [Black Students Association]--it doesn't speak for the Black students."

Part of bringing the department away from the margins involves bringing it into the limelight. And gates brought national attention to Afro-Am this semester with the arrival of filmmaker Spike Lee.

Lee, who came as a visiting lecturer on Afro-American cinema, shuttled back and forth from New York while editing his upcoming film, Malcolm X.

At his course's first session--which packed Sanders Theatre--Lee's delivery was low-key, and he remained poised despite a barrage of Lampoon jokes and a battery of questions from the overflowing crowd.

After 60 students were selected from applications and the class moved into more intimate setting, the Lee fervor died down somewhat. Now, Afro-Am is negotiating for Lee to return to the department in the fall--this time for a smaller seminar on Afro-American film, or possibly on scriptwriting.

Gates says Lee's presence served a definite purpose, bringing Harvard's Afro-Am program into the national limelight as well as the center of campus discussion.

"It's a symbolic gesture," Gates explains. "If you're trying to start over from scratch, symbolic gestures have been very important."

The next step for Afro-Am is not symbolic but concrete. Department officials are working to create a graduate program in Afro-Am.

And Gates and the other senior faculty members are continuing to seek scholars to fill its remaining open faculty positions, Five joint searches are in the works with the Divinity School and the History, Fine Arts, Music and Comparative Literature Departments.

In addition to Lee, the department will bring writer Jamaica Kincaid and jazz musician Anthony Davis to campus as visiting scholars next year.

Outgoing Dean for Undergraduate Education David Pilbeam says the Afro-Am Department succeeded this year byhiring "relatively young, very active, highlyrespected scholars."

Yet Pilbeam questions whether there isultimately a place for Afro-Am at Harvard. Thereis, he notes, a legitimate case for Afro-Am, butthe curriculum might better fit "as a track in anAmerican Studies or American Civilizationprogram."

Gates and Appiah doubt, however, that theAfro-Am department will disappear anytime soon.

"The reason why Afro-American studies exists,"Appiah says, "is that historically,African-American literature, history and culturewere...studied in ways that reflected racistcultural assumptions." Appiah predicts that in thefuture, other ethnic studies will be increasinglyrepresented.

"In the meantime, there will continue to be ause for [Afro-Am] in the American academy," hesays. "There may be a point where it's no longeruseful, but I think it's useful now."

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles laudsGates' work with the department in his first year.And Fisher says Gates' appointment and the growthof Afro-Am was a major accomplishment for DerekBok's final year in the presidency.

Gates gives a great deal of credit to lastyear's student protesters, whose University Halldemonstrations for a stronger department, he says,prompted administrators to act.

"They had a direct effect, of course," Gatessays. "The administration was committed, but...thestudent protests lit a fire under the community.It made people realize how desperate the situationwas."

This year, the department drew an unprecedented45 concentrators, a number Gates expects to risesteadily. Ad although the year was hardly freefrom student protests and demon-strations, foronce none of them focused of Afro-Am.

The revived Afro-Am seems to be on a roll, andGates sounds exuberant. "It's been a gloriousyear," he says

Yet Pilbeam questions whether there isultimately a place for Afro-Am at Harvard. Thereis, he notes, a legitimate case for Afro-Am, butthe curriculum might better fit "as a track in anAmerican Studies or American Civilizationprogram."

Gates and Appiah doubt, however, that theAfro-Am department will disappear anytime soon.

"The reason why Afro-American studies exists,"Appiah says, "is that historically,African-American literature, history and culturewere...studied in ways that reflected racistcultural assumptions." Appiah predicts that in thefuture, other ethnic studies will be increasinglyrepresented.

"In the meantime, there will continue to be ause for [Afro-Am] in the American academy," hesays. "There may be a point where it's no longeruseful, but I think it's useful now."

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles laudsGates' work with the department in his first year.And Fisher says Gates' appointment and the growthof Afro-Am was a major accomplishment for DerekBok's final year in the presidency.

Gates gives a great deal of credit to lastyear's student protesters, whose University Halldemonstrations for a stronger department, he says,prompted administrators to act.

"They had a direct effect, of course," Gatessays. "The administration was committed, but...thestudent protests lit a fire under the community.It made people realize how desperate the situationwas."

This year, the department drew an unprecedented45 concentrators, a number Gates expects to risesteadily. Ad although the year was hardly freefrom student protests and demon-strations, foronce none of them focused of Afro-Am.

The revived Afro-Am seems to be on a roll, andGates sounds exuberant. "It's been a gloriousyear," he says