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For Immediate Release

Media contact: Louise Teague, 260-481-6495

“Tracing Oprah’s Roots” Author to Speak at IPFW

(Fort Wayne, Jan. 24, 2008) -- Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has written numerous books, including one about Oprah Winfrey, but Gates himself is renowned as one of the United States' most influential cultural critics. In 1997 he was named one of Time magazine's "25 most influential Americans." In 2006 he wrote and produced African American Lives, the first documentary series to employ genealogy and science to provide an understanding of African American history. Gates will speak about "Genealogy and Genetics and the African American Experience" at the next Omnibus Lecture at IPFW on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 7:30 p.m.

Gates is both a formidable intellectual force and an eloquent commentator on multicultural and African American issues. He is widely acknowledged for taking African American studies beyond the ideological bent of the 1970s and 80s black power movement and bringing it into a scholarly sphere that is the equivalent to all other disciplines. Currently serving as director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Studies at Harvard University, Gates is also the editor of Transition magazine, an international review of African, Caribbean, and African American politics.

The IPFW Omnibus Lecture Series brings six distinguished speakers to the university and the northeast Indiana community each year. The series, in its 13th year, is committed to presenting diverse perspectives through educated, respected, and entertaining speakers. There is no admission fee. Omnibus is made possible with the support of the English, Bonter, Mitchell Foundation and publicized with support from Northeast Indiana Public Radio and WANE-TV NewsChannel 15. The Gates lecture is co-sponsored by the IPFW Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.

The 2007-08 Omnibus Lecture Series is held in The John and Ruth Rhinehart Music Center in the acoustically superb, 1,600-seat Auer Performance Hall. The Rhinehart Music Center is located on the north end of campus in the arts plaza next to Williams Theatre and the Visual Arts Building.

For more information or a downloadable photo and bio, visit www.omnibuslectures.org or contact University Relations and Communications at 260-481-6808.

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