“The major changes, any hires or departures, he would definitely be involved with,” Carpio said. “There are a lot of ways in which he’ll be physically gone but part and parcel of the department, as always.”
IAS, while officially unaffiliated with Princeton, is only a few miles away from the university’s campus and enjoys “close, collaborative ties” with the school, according to a statement on its website.
Colleagues in Afro-American Studies suggested IAS’ close proximity to Appiah and West may have been a major factor in Gates’ decision to spend a year there.
“I think he misses his colleagues,” Carpio said. “He’s very close to Professor Appiah. He calls him his best friend often. I’m sure that they’ll spend some time together.”
Gates, who is currently in Ghana, could not be reached for comment.
Bobo said Gates’ leave is well-deserved.
“Skip is long overdue for a sabbatical,” Bobo said. “He’s essentially been in the saddle for 12 years, which is an unusually long time before taking a break.”
Both Bobo and Carpio said they were sure Gates would return to Cambridge after next year.
“I have absolutely no worries on that front,” Bobo said. “He is committed to remaining at Harvard, committed to building the new African and African-American Studies here, and I have no doubts at all about his certainty of returning.”
Carpio, who arrived in the department this year after being recruited by Gates, said that while she would miss him, she understood the need for his absence.
“I can deal with him being gone for a year,” Carpio said. “Forever, that’s another thing.”
“This is obviously an important time for the department, and a multi-layered set of transitions is underway,” Bobo said. “Skip is substantially and squarely involved in all of this.”
Carpio also said there might be some silver linings to Gates’ absence.
“He does a lot for the department, he takes a lot on his shoulders,” Carpio said. “That’s great and we always love that, but it would be great for the department to do that as a group, rather than have him do that alone.”
A spokesperson at the institute confirmed yesterday that Gates would be spending next year there as visiting faculty, but declined to comment on the specifics of his appointment.
IAS has no undergraduate or graduate students, freeing faculty for research, similar to Harvard’s own Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Its first faculty member was Albert Einstein.
According to Carpio, Gates will likely be working on a book during his time onthe scenic New Jersey campus.
“He never published his dissertation, and he wants to go back to some of the things he dealt with then,” Carpio said.
“It’s been a raucous number of years: expecting bad news, going through bad news, then rebuilding,” she said. “He’s really looking forward to some time for his scholarship.”
—Staff Writer Ben A. Black can be reached at bblack@fas.harvard.edu.