Henry Louis Gates Jr. sits comfortably in his spanking new corner office with confidence.

Gates, chair of Afro-American Studies, says that not only is the new department location (above CVS on Mass. Ave) far more spacious, but it is also much closer to the intellectual center of Harvard.

And that's where Gates wants to be.

Gates arrives at the University this fall to resurrect the department and put it on its feet, after years of stagnation and failed efforts to recruit new faculty.

Gates spent this past spring and summer taking a "tutorial" in the Harvard system. "It was like going back to school," he says.

Among the teachers Gates credits are Women's Studies Chair Barbara E. Johnson, English Department Chair Philip J. Fisher and Geyser University Professor Henry Rosovsky.

But Gates, the DuBois professor of the humanities, doesn't seem to need a lot of instruction, he has the air of a natural leader. During his first hour-long interview with The Crimson late last week, the former Duke University scholar was personable and friendly. He is familiar with the media--he has appeared in hundreds of newspaper articles. Self-assured, almost cocky, Gates is in control.

Gates begins talking before the first question is asked, speaking about his goals for the semester and vision for the department. Gates has come for the opportunity to build.

"I see my task as recruiting the most sophisticated scholars in Afro-American Studies at work today," says Gates.

It is no small task for a department that little over a year ago extended offers to three of the nation's top scholars in Afro-Am and came up empty.

Gates' goal is to fill five more positions, with both junior and senior scholars, in the next five years. Gates wants to avoid "symbolic" or temporary appointments and instead focus on "serious and sustained scholarly appointments."

The most pressing appointment for Gates is a senior historian, a post left vacant with the death of DuBois Professor of History Nathaniel I. Huggins in the fall of 1989.

"History and literature are the twin pillars that any department will be built on," says Gates.

And Gates already has one of those pillars. In all, the department counts three senior professors and one junior professor who teach Afro-American literature. Those scholars, along with Women Studies' Johnson, make Harvard second only to Princeton University in the field, says Gates.

Princeton is the model. They, after all, are the ones to beat. Gates says that Princeton has been successful because it has focused its scholarship and its appointments around a single field.