The John Nicholas Brown Center supports initiatives that serve as models for public humanities programming, benefit local institutions, and provide students with a wide range of experiences. Recent local work includes collaboration with historic preservation organizations and museums to enhance and expand their programs. On a national level, the Center and its students have worked with Smithsonian Institution initiatives including the Bracero history program and the new National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Internationally, the Center is spearheading a collaboration with the cultural heritage and management programs at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The JNBC works with other organizations at Brown and elsewhere to support student and faculty projects and community public humanities and cultural heritage efforts. Contact us if you think we might be able to work together.
2010
Screening of Butte, America
co-sponsored with the Cogut Center for the Humanities, the Committee on Science and Technology Studies, the Center for Environmental Studies, the Environmental Change Initiative, and the Urban Studies Program
Sylvia Ann Soares "By the Sweat of Our Brow: Longshoremen Stories"
Co-sponsored with the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities
Rhode Island Council for the Humanities’ 2009 Celebration of the Humanities
Elaine Weiss “Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army of America in the Great War”
co-sponsored with the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center
2009 New England Museum Association Conference
Ouija Board
exhibition at the JNBC by Sara Mooney for the course ARCH0300: 13 Things: Archaeology, Material Culture, Science Studies and Design
Miniature Worlds: An Exhibition of Short Films on Themed Environments
exhibition in the Carriage House Gallery by students in the course HIAA1890F: From Worlds in Miniature to Miniature Worlds: Theming and Virtuality
The Art of Communicating Science to the Public
exhibition in the Carriage House Gallery by students in the RISD course Environmental Disasters
The Business of Preservation: Northeast African American Historic Sites Sustainability Workshop
co-sponsored with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Northeast Office
Jay Brown, Nato Thompson, Abigal Satinsky, Patricia Phillips, Ana Paula Cohen, Dara Greenwald, Helen Molesworth, and Debra Singer "Curating Contemporary Art: Perspectives on Practice" series
co-sponsored with the Department of Modern Culture and Media, the Graduate Studies Division at RISD, and the RISD Museum
Connecting New England's Creative Communities A Symposium Presented by the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Providence Department of Arts, Culture + Tourism
co-sponsored with the Providence Phoenix, Dialog Projects, and Trinity Repertory Company
Harriet Jacobs
co-sponsored with the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, and Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, the Central Square Theater, and Perishable Theatre
We Care for the Land: Changing Race Relations on Family Farms in Todd County, Kentucky
exhibit in the Carriage House Gallery curated by Sarah Gibson ’10.5 as part of a 2009-2010 Royce Fellowship
Bob Santelli "Preserving Pop: Music, Museums, and American Culture"
co-sponsored with the Liberal Arts Division, Rhode Island School of Design
Nigel Rolfe "World of Dust"
co-sponsored with the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, and the Division of Graduate Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design
The Black Lavender Experience
co-sponsored with Department of African Studies and Rites and Reason Theatre
Jenny Price "Campfire Talk: The Los Angeles Urban Rangers Enact the Megalopolis"
co-sponsored with the Department of History
Food on the Move
co-sponsored with the Johnson and Wales Culinary Arts Museum
Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis "Truck Farm: A Wicked Delicate Film and Food Project"
co-sponsored with Brown Dining Services, Brown University Sustainable Food Initiative (SuFI), the Center for Environmental Studies, emPOWER, EcoRI, and Whole Foods Market
2010 Annual Rhode Island Statewide Historic Preservation Conference
Women in the Archives Conference
co-sponsored with the Women Writers Project and the Sarah Doyle Women's Center
Theoretical Archaeology Group 2010
co-sponsored with the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Sight Lines: Looking Back, Seeing Through
co-sponsored with the Chandra X-ray Center/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Department of Modern Culture and Media
2009
Sven Ahlbäck "Local Culture in a Global Society: Folk Tonality in Contemporary Sweden"
co-sponsored with the Department of Music
Coming to the Americas lecture series
co-sponsored with the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance
Eating Chinese: Comestibles, Cuisine, Commerce and Culture
co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the Johnson and Wales Culinary Arts Museum
Stih and Schnock “Art Goes Public: Memorials and Interventions”
co-sponsored with the Cogut Center for Humanities and the Department of American Civilization
Michael Brown "Culture in an Iron Cage: Cultural Appropriation and the Governance of Indigenous Heritage"
co-sponsored with the Department of Music and the Watson Institute for International Studies
Undocumented Immigrants and Higher Education
co-sponsored with the Department of Education, the Department of American Civilization, and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
Days of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) Altar
co-sponsored with the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Screening of Revolution ’67
co-sponsored with the Department of American Civilization and the Urban Studies Program
Emil Her Many Horses and Colleen Cutschall “Identity by Design at the NMAI”
co-sponsored with the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos "Thieves of Baghdad: The Loss of Cultural Heritage"
co-sponsored with the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Stephanie Yuhl “Preservations and Imaginations: Buildings and Beyond in Historic Charleston”
co-sponsored with the Providence Preservation Society
Russell Thornton "Repatriation and Healing the Trauma of Native American History"
co-sponsored with the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
Donovan Rypkema “Economics of Historic Preservation”
co-sponsored with the Providence Preservation Society
A Thousand Ships: A ritual of remembrance at WaterFire marking the bicentennial of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
co-sponsored with Waterfire Providence
Emancipated Memories: Uncovering the Hidden Faces of Slavery
co-sponsored with the Sarah Doyle Women's Center
Roger Williams and America's Journey Toward Religious Freedom
co-sponsored with the National Park Service
2008
Oscar Ho “Critical Curatorship”
co-sponsored by the Department of Visual Art
Cultural? Heritage? Tourism? Lecture series
co-sponsored with the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Eating Chinese: Local and Global Perspectives on Memory and Identity
co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the Johnson and Wales Culinary Arts Museum
Kenneth Rendell “The Rationale and Collecting for the World War II Museum”
co-sponsored with the Friends of the Library
Modern Perspectives of a Modern People featuring new works from young Native American artists
co-sponsored with Native Americans at Brown
Semana Chicana
co-sponsored with Brown's Third World Center
co-sponsored with the History Departmental Undergraduate Group
David Amram: Celebrating a Half-Century of Multi-Cultural Artistic Collaborations
co-sponsored with the Department of Music
2007
Neil Silberman “Rethinking the Concept of ‘Heritage:’ Some Perspectives from the European Union”
co-sponsored with the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Urban Transformations / Shifting Identities; Graduate Student Symposium in Architecture and Urbanism
co-sponsored with the Department of History of Art and Architecture
Bracero History and Archives Project
co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the National Museum of American History
American Seminar
co-sponsored with the departments of American Civilization, History, and English and the John Carter Brown Library
StoryCorps a national oral history project sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, visited Providence
sponsored by the JNBC and organized by students in the public humanities program
“Is Radio Still Important?” Colloquium Series
co-sponsored with the Department of American Civilization
2006
Displaying Race and Ethnicity: Communities and Their Museums Lecture Series
co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America colloquium series
“Science in the Public Eye: A Science and Technology Studies Symposium”
co-sponsored with the Faculty Committee on Science and Technology Studies
“Writing History outside the Academy: Three Perspectives on Public History”
co-sponsored with the Department of History
Chamber music at the Nightingale-Brown House
co-sponsored with the Department of Music
2004
Public Spheres and American Culture
co-sponsored by the Department of American Civilization and the Provost’s Office