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Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and produced and hosted an array of documentary films, including, most recently, The Black Church on PBS and Black Art: In the Absence of Light for HBO. Finding Your Roots, his groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series, just completed its eighth season on PBS.

During his distinguished career, tracing the history and culture of people of African descent the world over, Gates has made significant contributions to France especially. As a Harvard scholar, he was one of the principal organizers of the watershed International Conference on African Americans and Europe at the Sorbonne in 1992. Four years later, he played a similarly pivotal role as an organizer of the International Conference on African American Music and Europe, also at the Sorbonne.