"Many African-American studies departments try to replicate all the disciplines in the university. But that's not possible, the resources are simply not there," says Gates. The key is to develop a theme that all the scholarship revolves around, be it cultural studies or public policy. "The whole has to make sense," says Gates.

While Gates surely has his own ideas, it may be several months before the department as a whole focuses its vision and a specific theme develops.

As he works to build a new department, Gates is careful to emphasize that Afro-Am is for everybody, not just the concentrators. "We expect to be a place that all undergraduates will find support for interest in Afro-American culture," he says.

Nevertheless, non-concentrators will have a hard time seeing Gates, who is teaching a graduate seminar and an Afro-Am tutorial, or the department's other high-profile catch, Spike Lee, whose class is limited to 50 with preference given to Afro-Am concentrators.

Gates says that without a limitation, Lee's class would become a circus filled with gawkers. As for himself, Gates says in a couple of years he may well build a lecture class but for now he doesn't have time.

In addition to chairing the department, Gates is the director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute and is the editor of countless research projects. The Afro-Am chair says that all those committments mean that he regularly works 12-hour days.

Gates is making this commitment because, he says, he is responsibile not just to Harvard but to the study of Afro-American culture everywhere. My main responsibility is to ensure the academic integrity of our field," he says Gates.

That means speaking out against voices that say that only Blacks can study Afro-American studies and against people who ignore the American in "African-American," he says.

Gates is concerned about the anti-semitism he has seen recently amid the work of some scholars, such as City University of New York Professor Leonard Jeffries. Gates says he must be a "powerful voice against vulger impulses in the discipline."

But Gates believes he can be that voice without leaving the banks of the Charles River. While tenured at Duke, Gates spent a lot of time away from Durham, attending conferences and giving lectures across the country. Gates says his leadership role in the field justified his frequent travel. On reflection, Gates says, his travel was also an excuse to leave Duke.

"It was very conservative, I am glad to be out of there," he says. "I will not miss being stereotyped as a left-wing activist hellbent on destroying the canon of Western literature."

Gates says he has found a home in Cambridge. Collegues have been helpful and enthusiastic in helping start what is essentially a new program. Already Gates has brought in two new faces to board of directors of the DuBois Institute: University Professor Helen Vendler and Agass Professor of Zoology Stephen Jay Gould.

"I can't imagine more good will, I am really encouraged by the level of commitment," say Gates. "I have plans to stay here a very long time."