F. Joseph Callahan Distinguished Lecture Presents Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.

2017 F. Joseph Callahan Distinguished Lecture to feature Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., professor, author, filmmaker and critic, speaking on the topic of ancestry.

Over 10 years since its inception, and five years after the F. Joseph Callahan endowment, the Case Western Reserve University Distinguished Lecture presents acclaimed professor, cultural critic, author and filmmaker Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Thursday, March 23.

With 21 books and 16 documentary films to his credit, Gates is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning intellectual force. As director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University and the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Gates is considered among the premier U.S. scholars of African-American literature and African Diasporic studies.

Gates has received more than 55 honorary degrees, and other numerous academic and social-action awards. Most recently, he produced and hosted the four-hour PBS documentary, Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise (2016), chronicling the last 50 years of African-American history.

Gates was chosen by a Case Western Reserve selection committee for his research and work on ancestry. His lecture launches the 2017 Cleveland Humanities Festival of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, which is centered on the theme of immigration.

When the committee members met last year to select the speaker, we anticipated that placing the topic of ancestry in the context of immigration would appeal to a broad audience, Eric Dicken, senior executive director of Donor Relations, University Events, and Presidential Protocol at Case Western Reserve, said. “We could not have predicted just how much in the forefront the topic would become.

The hour-long lecture will be followed by a discussion and audience questions.

The lecture will be presented at Case Western Reserve’s Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at the Temple Tifereth Israel, 1855 Ansel Road, Cleveland.

Due to the high level of interest, the Maltz Performing Arts Center has reached capacity for this free public event. However, live streaming has been arranged at the Tinkham Veale University Center ballroom (11038 Bellflower Road), where the program may be viewed in its entirety.

Guests without tickets may arrive the night of the event to join a standby line at the Maltz Performing Arts Center or go directly to the Tinkham Veale University Center. Standby guests will be admitted based on available seats, although standby admission is not guaranteed.

For more information on the lecture, visit the Callahan Distinguished Lecture Event Homepage.