And even if Afro-Am turns toward the social sciences in the future, Patterson says. "They should stick to the cultural end of sociology and politics...rather than the more hard-core sort of studies of poverty and inequality."

In addition to forging a niche and a speciality for Afro-Am, Gates says he is trying to ensure that the department is seen as a legitimate academic institution.

Gates says the department must avoid the "voodoo Egyptology and anti-Semitism epitomized by [controversial City University of New York professor] Leonard Jeffries."

Gates' brand of scholarship--which he describes in his new book, Loose Canons, as exploring the hyphen in African-American--rejects the more Afrocentric approaches of Jeffries and some other prominent Black scholars.

His attitude toward Afro-American studies has led some undergraduates to question his ability to speak for Black Harvard students. But Gates says he doesn't consider that his role.

"No one speaks for the student the students speak for themselves," he says. "The [Black Students Association]--it doesn't speak for the Black students."

Part of bringing the department away from the margins involves bringing it into the limelight. And gates brought national attention to Afro-Am this semester with the arrival of filmmaker Spike Lee.

Lee, who came as a visiting lecturer on Afro-American cinema, shuttled back and forth from New York while editing his upcoming film, Malcolm X.

At his course's first session--which packed Sanders Theatre--Lee's delivery was low-key, and he remained poised despite a barrage of Lampoon jokes and a battery of questions from the overflowing crowd.

After 60 students were selected from applications and the class moved into more intimate setting, the Lee fervor died down somewhat. Now, Afro-Am is negotiating for Lee to return to the department in the fall--this time for a smaller seminar on Afro-American film, or possibly on scriptwriting.

Gates says Lee's presence served a definite purpose, bringing Harvard's Afro-Am program into the national limelight as well as the center of campus discussion.

"It's a symbolic gesture," Gates explains. "If you're trying to start over from scratch, symbolic gestures have been very important."

The next step for Afro-Am is not symbolic but concrete. Department officials are working to create a graduate program in Afro-Am.

And Gates and the other senior faculty members are continuing to seek scholars to fill its remaining open faculty positions, Five joint searches are in the works with the Divinity School and the History, Fine Arts, Music and Comparative Literature Departments.

In addition to Lee, the department will bring writer Jamaica Kincaid and jazz musician Anthony Davis to campus as visiting scholars next year.