Past Events

• Apr

  13

  4:00pm - 5:00pm

  Info Session: Fifth-Year Master’s in Public Humanities

  Join the Center for Public Humanities’ director, staff and a current student to learn more about our 5th-year Master’s Program in Public Humanities.

  MA degree in Public Humanities offers a unique program of study for those interested in public engagement and the work of cultural organizations. This graduate degree program provides a dynamic interdisciplinary opportunity for students interested in careers in museums, historical societies, cultural agencies, heritage tourism, historic preservation, universities, and community arts programs.

  • Graduating seniors: apply by May 1, 11:59pm ET.
  • Up to 2 approved undergraduate courses count toward the MA degree
  • GRE is not required
  • Application fee is waived

  RSVP: https://forms.gle/ujvs3tPNsToMYtgd6

  Info Session: Fifth-Year Master’s in Public Humanities
• Mar

  31

  4:30pm - 5:30pm

  Restoring Seneca Village: Lessons for the Snowtown Project

  A virtual lecture and discussion by Cynthia Copeland (President, Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History) about the decades-long work to interpret the historic African-American community displaced by Central Park, and how that effort may offer strategies for telling Snowtown’s story.

  Register in advance: https://ri-college.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUoc-2grTwqE9dVQFqXTNZreRFvIgwRSyqx

  Restoring Seneca Village: Lessons for the Snowtown Project
• 

  Mar

  23

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “The Endowed Authority of Indigenous Curation” Talk by Jim Enote

  After many years working within museology, we continue to see items in collections disguised with mistaken and unsuitable interpretations. The inclusion of expert peoples representing the source of collection materials is the keystone of a museum collaboration movement. We are aware that knowledges are transitory and fluid, and the old systems supporting only one way of knowing are artifacts of humanity’s misstep. I see collaboration as co-laboring and co-elaborating from a fixed center, and we can apply the collaborative practice in a variety of critical social situations.” From the Museum Collaboration Manifesto ~ Jim Enote

  Jim Enote is a Zuni tribal member, CEO of the Colorado Plateau Foundation, former director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum, and the Ames Prize’s first recipient for innovative museum anthropology. Enote serves on the boards of the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Grand Canyon Trust. Jim’s service the past forty years includes assignments for organizations including UNESCO, UNDP, International Secretariat for Water, Nordic Council of Ministers, Tibet Child Nutrition Project, the Mountain Institute, National Geographic Society, US Bureau of Indian Affairs, US National Park Service, and the Zuni Tribe. In 2013 he received the Guardian of Culture and Lifeways Award from the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, and in 2016 received the Hewett Award for leadership and service to the New Mexico museum community and achievements in the museum field.

  “The Endowed Authority of Indigenous Curation” Talk by Jim Enote

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Mar

  18

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Can Buildings Improve Local Ecologies?” Talk by Lara Davis, Architect.

  The rhetoric of sustainable design often takes the position of mitigating the impact of construction, at best, limiting the embodied energy and the carbon footprint of buildings. Can we go further than this, to look at a whole-systems co-design of ecologies and buildings, to discover how buildings may be used to improve local ecologies?

  Lara Davis is an architect and masonry specialist who has served as co-director of the Auroville Earth Institute and representative for the UNESCO Chair of Earthen Construction. Her core commitment is to the sustainable co-evolution of natural ecologies and human habitats, with passive design methods, low-carbon materials and circular ecologies of natural resources.

  “Can Buildings Improve Local Ecologies?” Talk by Lara Davis, Architect.

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Mar

  16

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Navigating the Crisis: A View from the Paul Revere House.” Talk by Nina Zannieri

  Nina Zannieri is the Executive Director, Paul Revere Association.

  History museum and historic sites, already complex organizations that are dynamic public history venues, tourist attractions, versatile businesses, and trusted community resources, are facing numerous challenges as they navigate a health crisis and a national reckoning on matters of race, equity, climate and more. Learn how the Paul Revere House on Boston’s Freedom Trail is managing these issues in a conversation with its long-time Executive Director and Brown graduate, Nina Zannieri.

  You can view “A solemn and perpetual memorial”, an event that Nina Zannieri referred to during the talk, here.  

  “Navigating the Crisis: A View from the Paul Revere House.” Talk by Nina Zannieri

  JNBC Lectures
• Mar

  11

  4:30pm - 6:00pm

  Welcome to Snowtown: Exploring a Lost Neighborhood

  Snowtown was a small, mixed-race neighborhood in mid-1800s Providence. It was the site of a racially motivated mob attack in the fall of 1831, but it was also home; first to poor Black and white laborers and later to waves of migrants, sailors, extra-legal entrepreneurs, and widowed mothers. By the end of the 19th century, the Snowtown community had been displaced by railroad construction and urban development, including construction of the RI State House.

  The Snowtown Project Research Team is working to recover the history of this diverse community. Please join us to hear a brief introduction to the team’s progress so far. We will discuss people, places and memory as well as the artifacts excavated at the Snowtown site, with time for audience questions.

  Speakers include Ted Coleman, Nkem Ike, Marco McWilliams, Joanne Pope Melish, Heather Olson, Traci Picard, Andrew Polta, and Sylvia Ann Soares.

  Register here:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/welcome-to-snowtown-exploring-a-lost-neighborhood-tickets-142251176097

  Welcome to Snowtown: Exploring a Lost Neighborhood
• 

  Mar

  11

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Civically Engaged Public Art in Pittsburgh: People, Place, History, Memory.” Talk by Divya Rao Heffley

  Art in the public realm has the potential to significantly impact the social and civic life of the communities in which it is based. How can public art center the voices of these communities as well as the vision of its makers? At the Office of Public Art in Pittsburgh, we believe that art can build community and increase social connection. We envision a region in which the creative practices of artists are fully engaged to collaboratively shape the public realm and catalyze community-led change. Our Civically Engaged Public Art program is grounded in equity and social justice and centers collaborations with communities that have been historically marginalized and underrepresented in civic processes. The artists with whom we work, who engage in civic practice, go far beyond studio and social practice to co-create with communities. Their work stretches across media and disciplines but shares a common focus on putting people and place first. They trouble the distinction between history and memory, amplifying marginalized stories and entering them into the public record through their work. In this roundtable, you will learn about OPA’s recent civically engaged public art projects, as well as the collaborations between the artists and communities integral to their creation.

  Divya Rao Heffley (PhD’10) is an arts professional with over fifteen years of experience in museums, public art, and art and architectural history. As Associate Director for the Office of Public Art, Divya works with artists and communities on residencies and commissions that address a range of contemporary issues, seeking to foster social justice and cultural equity in public spaces. Prior to joining OPA, Divya managed the Hillman Photography Initiative at Carnegie Museum of Art from 2013-18. She has served as guest critic for the Carnegie Mellon University School of Art as well as on national juries and panels for artist selections, grants, and portfolio reviews. Divya holds a PhD in the History of Art and Architecture from Brown University and a BA in the History of Art from Yale University. As an Indian-American immigrant and member of a multicultural family, Divya is a committed advocate of equity in arts and culture and beyond. She grew up in Pittsburgh and has three energetic children as well as a dedicated practice in martial arts.

  “Civically Engaged Public Art in Pittsburgh: People, Place, History, Memory.” Talk by Divya Rao Heffley

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Mar

  4

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Aligning Your Work and Your Values” panel discussion

  Doing social justice work often involves pushing organizations out of comfort zones. How do we guide cultural heritage institutions in operationalizing anti-racist values and leverage institutional resources towards engagement with diverse publics? Join cultural strategists Keonna Hendrick and Lauren Zelaya, in conversation with Matthew Branch, MA ’21 for a conversation on educating and programming for a better world.

  Keonna Hendrick is the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access at the Brooklyn Museum. She is the recipient of the 2019 National Art Education Association’s National Museum Education Art Educator Award, in recognition for her dedication to equity-centered approaches to community engagement and institutional practices. Ms. Hendrick’s writing has appeared in numerous publications including the Journal of Museum Education (2017), Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today (2014) and the Journal of Folklore and Education (2016). Ms. Hendrick provides professional development to educators in museums and classrooms nationally. She has edited academic volumes devoted to scholarship on anti-racism in museums, including the Journal of Museum Education and Viewfinder; and I have taught university courses at Pratt Institute; Teacher’s College, Columbia University; and School for Visual Arts. She previously served as School Programs Manager at the Brooklyn Museum, where she led the department through the implementation of programs that resulted in culturally responsive engagement, anti-oppressive pedagogy, and equitable distribution of resources to schools with disparate needs across Brooklyn. She holds a B.A. in History and Studio Art from Wake Forest University and a M.A. in Arts Policy and Administration from The Ohio State University.

  Lauren Argentina Zelaya is a cultural producer, curator, and DJ based in Brooklyn, NY. In her role as the Director of Public Programs at Brooklyn Museum, Lauren curates and produces public programs that welcome over 200,000 visitors annually to engage with art in new and unexpected ways. Lauren is committed to collaborating with emerging artists and centering voices in our communities that are often marginalized, with a focus on creating programming for and with LGBTQ+, BIPOC and immigrant communities.

  Matthew Branch is an educator working in Student Affairs and Public Programming; he is the Assistant Director for Student Activities and Special Initiatives at Brown and is a 2nd Year student in the Public Humanities Master’s program.

  “Aligning Your Work and Your Values” panel discussion

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Feb

  9

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  Mapping Indigenous Long Island with Shinnecock Artist Jeremy Dennis
  Please join enrolled Shinnecock tribal member and artist Jeremy Dennis as he discusses his landscape photography project titled ‘On This Site - Indigenous Long Island’ which involves the mapping of sacred, historical, and archaeological Indigenous sites throughout Long Island, New York. Dennis will also share selections from his portraiture work as it relates to themes of representation.

  Jeremy Dennis (b. 1990) is a contemporary fine art photographer and a tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, NY. In his work, he explores indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation. Dennis holds an MFA from Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, and a BA in Studio Art from Stony Brook University, NY. He currently lives and works in Southampton, New York on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.

  Mapping Indigenous Long Island with Shinnecock Artist Jeremy Dennis

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Feb

  2

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Elihu Yale and the Yale Center for British Art”, Talk by Courtney Martin

  Talk by Courtney J. Martin, Director, Yale Center for British Art. 

  The Yale Center for British Art acquired the painting Elihu Yale; William Cavendish, the second Duke of Devonshire; Lord James Cavendish; Mr. Tunstal; and an Enslaved Servant, ca. 1708 before the museum opened to the public in 1977. The Elihu Yale Group was formed in 2020 and has taken the painting as the subject of a web-based project and gallery reinstallation that will make known its presence in our collection and the multiple ways in which it has been explored by others to make transparent our relationship to its complex history.

  “Elihu Yale and the Yale Center for British Art”, Talk by Courtney Martin

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Nov

  17

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Loss/Capture: The state of Black cultural archives in and beyond Chicago” Lunch talk by Steven D. Booth.

  In response to sale of the Johnson Publishing Company archives to various nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, Sixty Inches From Center released “Loss/Capture,” a digital editorial project that investigates the current state of Black collections in Chicago. Under the direction of archivists and guest editors Steven D. Booth and Stacie Williams, Sixty published a series of multimedia articles including essays, photography, illustrations, and video, from a range of contributors who hold experience and expertise in Black collections. Booth will discuss the phases of the project from conception to completion and highlight the personal and communal value of Black collections, the careful work necessary for preservation, and the importance of archives in sustaining social identity using contributions from the project.

  Steven D. Booth (he/him) is an archivist, researcher, and co-founder of the Blackivists Collective.

  WEBSITES / SOCIAL MEDIA

  • Personal Website: http://www.stevendbooth.com/
  • Personal Social Media: @misterbooth (Twitter and Instagram)
  • Project Website: https://losscaptureproject.cargo.site/
  • Project Social Media: @fromthecenter (Twitter); @losscaptureproject (Instagram)

  “Loss/Capture: The state of Black cultural archives in and beyond Chicago” Lunch talk by Steven D. Booth.

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Nov

  12

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Whose maps, Our Maps! Decolonizing Cartography to Serve Movements of Resistance and Resilience” Lunch talk by Jordan Engel

  Jordan Engel is an independent mapmaker and founder of the Decolonial Atlas, currently based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY).

  The Decolonial Atlas is a counter-mapping collective centering Indigenous perspectives and challenging Western cartography’s colonial roots. This presentation will highlight many of the maps the Atlas has made over the past 6 years to radically revisualize our world, and how others can help.

  “Whose maps, Our Maps! Decolonizing Cartography to Serve Movements of Resistance and Resilience” Lunch talk by Jordan Engel

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Oct

  29

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Advocating for Architecture in Kampala” Lunch talk by Doreen Adengo

  Doreen Adengo, AIA, is Principal of Adengo Architecture, LLC in Kampala.

  Doreen Adengo is an architect and the founder of Adengo Architecture in Kampala, Uganda. She has taught studio courses at The New School for Social Research and Pratt Institute, and worked previously for Adjaye Associates. Her firm’s recent work in Uganda includes the design of affordable housing, schools, and a mobile medical clinic that incorporate ecologically sensitive elements such as solar panels and water harvesting capabilities. Adengo is the Conservation Architect on the Uganda Museum, a 1940s modernist building selected for a Getty conservation grant in 2020, and is an expert on modernist architecture in Africa. Adengo’s presentation provides an overview of the firm’s work in Uganda today.

  “Advocating for Architecture in Kampala” Lunch talk by Doreen Adengo

  History, Cultural Studies, Languages, Humanities, Identity, Culture, Inclusion, JNBC Lectures
• 

  Oct

  20

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Telling Uncomfortable Histories through Reimagining Sites of Enslavement” Lunch talk by Kyera Singleton

  Kyera Singleton is the Executive Director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, a PhD Candidate in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan, and a Visiting Fellow in the History Department at Harvard University.

  How do sites of slavery reckon with their history today? This presentation will think through how historical sites such as the Royall House and Slave Quarters serve as a permanent marker of the history of Northern slavery, the fight amongst enslaved and free Black women and men to define freedom on their own terms, and the role of museums in the preservation of history and the fight for social justice today.

  “Telling Uncomfortable Histories through Reimagining Sites of Enslavement” Lunch talk by Kyera Singleton

  History, Cultural Studies, Languages, Humanities, Identity, Culture, Inclusion, JNBC Lectures
• 

  Oct

  15

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “The Rural Black Lives Project and the Co-Creation of Knowledge.” Lunch talk by Gerard Laurence Aching

  Gerard Aching is Professor of Africana and Romance Studies, a Faculty Fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, and Co-Principal Investigator of the Rural Humanities Initiative at Cornell University.

  In his presentation, Professor Aching will describe how his undergraduate Underground Railroad Seminar led him to contribute to Cornell University’s Rural Humanities Initiative, which the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has funded, and to the initiative’s current Rural Black Lives theme and seminar. Trained as a scholar of 19th-century Caribbean literatures, Aching will also speak about the impact that his public humanities and community-engaged projects has had on his research.

  “The Rural Black Lives Project and the Co-Creation of Knowledge.” Lunch talk by Gerard Laurence Aching

  History, Cultural Studies, Languages, Humanities, Identity, Culture, Inclusion, JNBC Lectures
• 

  Oct

  1

  5:00pm

  in Pursuit of Venus [infected]: A Conversation with Artist Lisa Reihana

  Join Brown Arts Initiative during the REMAKING the real Fall Festival for a preview of in Pursuit of Venus [infected]with artist Lisa Reihana. The powerful 70 foot long scrolling video is Reihana’s corrective to the historical record, created in response to eighteenth-century views of the Pacific islands as presented in the historic French wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique(Native Peoples of the South Pacific), 1804-05. Reihana will be joined by Marisa Angell Brown, Assistant Director for Programs, John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities, Julia Lum, Assistant Professor of Art History at Scripps College, Claremont, CA; performer and cultural historian Annawon Weedon, and Jo-Ann Conklin, Director, David Winton Bell Gallery. in Pursuit of Venus [infected]will be shown at the Bell Gallery in the fall of 2021.

  This event will be presented live as a zoom webinar. No registration required. 

  The REMAKING the real Fall Festival will be held remotely from Sept 28 - Oct 2 and will feature events including:

  • A keynote address by artist Kent Monkman
  • Film screenings and artist talks including Dawson City: Frozen Time by Bill Morrison and Shulie by Elisabeth Subrin
  • A conversation featuring contemporary artist Lisa Reihana
  • State of Urgency, an exhibition of posters from the Print Like You Give a Damn Collective, created during he Summer 2020 protest marches
  • Community artist performances
  • Plus artist talks, workshops, and more

  in Pursuit of Venus [infected]: A Conversation with Artist Lisa Reihana (Brown Arts Initiative (BAI))

  Arts, Performance
• 

  Oct

  1

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “What are exhibitions for? In a university gallery? In Abu Dhabi?” Lunch Talk by Maya Allison

  Maya Allison is founding Executive Director of The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, the first academic gallery in the GCC. She was curator at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, and before that, at The RISD Museum as Curatorial Assistant.

  This presentation reflects on a chronicle of questions about curating, audience, and meaning in art.

   

  “What are exhibitions for? In a university gallery? In Abu Dhabi?” Lunch Talk by Maya Allison

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Sep

  25

  3:00pm - 4:30pm

  Monuments, Murals, and Movements: Reimagining the Art of Social Justice

  In the summer of 2020, challenges to race, memorialization, and icons of power predominated ongoing social, cultural, and political action and art. These scholars will examine how social movements have redefined public space, articulated social justice issues through art, and defied long-standing national icons and monuments. What’s at stake in these movements and gestures and how do art and politics work together to reimagine social space, belonging, and power?

  Presentations by Crystal Feimster, Yale University; Daniel Magaziner, Yale University; Renee Ater, Brown University; and Juliet Hooker, Brown University.

  REGISTER HERE

  ______

  Presented by the Centering Race Consortium, a collaboration between the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University, the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity at Stanford University, theCenter for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, and the Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration at Yale University.

  Monuments, Murals, and Movements: Reimagining the Art of Social Justice (Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA))
• 

  Sep

  22

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “When Walls Talk: Hidden and Forgotten Stories of Enslaved People”, Lunch Talk by Jobie Hill

  Jobie Hill is a licensed Preservation Architect and Slave House Expert engaged in interdisciplinary research examining the dwellings of American slavery, the influence these dwellings had on the lives of their inhabitants, and is committed to the preservation and education of the history of enslaved people.

  A slave house is like every other American home – a sacred place. It is also an irreplaceable piece of history that simultaneously embodies suffering, yet  perseverance and strong family bonds. Interpretation of slave house architecture, in combination with details from the historical record and stories from actual inhabitants, offers an authentic portrayal of slavery in our nation’s history that has the potential to further collective growth toward cultural self-actualization and allow us to build on a momentum for change to the benefit of all. It honors the undeniable and immeasurable contributions of enslaved people to our country’s success and gives disenfranchised people a voice.

  “When Walls Talk: Hidden and Forgotten Stories of Enslaved People”, Lunch Talk by Jobie Hill

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Sep

  17

  6:00pm - 7:30pm

  Race, Justice and Health Disparities: Barriers to Equality and Citizenship

  A part of the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice’s ongoing series, This is Americaand in collaboration with the Philadelphia Chapter of the Inman Page Council (Brown University’s African American alumni association) the panel Race, Justice and Health Disparities: Barriers to Equality and Citizenship will explore the legacies of racial slavery, social justice and its impact on race, criminal justice and health disparities in the African American community of Philadelphia and beyond.

   

  Panelists include;

  Larry Krasner , District Attorney of Philadelphia

  Wilfred U. Codrington III , Assistant Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School

  Dr. Carla C. Moreira , Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at Brown University

  Dr. Giridhar G. Mallya , Senior Policy Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

  Professor Anthony Bogues , Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University (moderator)

  Race, Justice and Health Disparities: Barriers to Equality and Citizenship (Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice (CSSJ))

  Government, Public & International Affairs, History, Cultural Studies, Languages, Humanities, Identity, Culture, Inclusion, International, Global Engagement, Social Sciences
• 

  Sep

  15

  12:00pm

  “THE LIFE: Sex and Work in America” Lunch Talk by May Jeong

   

  May Jeong is a Special Correspondent at Vanity Fair. Her work has also been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and Harper’s among others. Her reporting on the MSF hospital strike in Kunduz, Afghanistan for The Intercept won the 2017 South Asian Journalists Association’s Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Report on South Asia, as well as the Prix Bayeux Calvados Award for War Correspondents in the Young Reporter category, the highest honor in war reporting. She was also shortlisted for the Livingston Awards in 2018.

  “THE LIFE: Sex and Work in America” will explore the way sex work intersects with the criminal justice system. The book is forthcoming from Atria/Simon & Schuster sometime in 2022.

  “THE LIFE: Sex and Work in America” Lunch Talk by May Jeong

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Aug

  6

  11:30am - 12:30pm

  “More than Just Volunteers: the International Docents that Connect the Museum to the World.” Virtual lunch talk by Phaedra Hui-shih Fang (National Museum of Taiwan)

  The National Taiwan Museum in Taipei, established in 1908, is the oldest museum in Taiwan, with collections and programming related to the history of Taiwan, as well as anthropology, the earth sciences, zoology and botany. The Museum has developed an innovative program that trains international undergraduate and graduate students to give guided walking tours of the Museum’s collections and its historic buildings. Fang’s presentation gives an overview of this program, the National Taiwan Museum, and the state of the field of museum education in Taiwan today.

  Phaedra Hui-shih Fang is a Curatorial Associate at the Education Department, National Taiwan Museum.

  “More than Just Volunteers: the International Docents that Connect the Museum to the World.” Virtual lunch talk by Phaedra Hui-shih Fang (National Museum of Taiwan)

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Jul

  21

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “The Museum We Closed is Not the Museum We Reopen” Virtual lunch talk by Scott Stulen (Director and President, Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, OK).

  Museums are currently facing challenges on multiple fronts, from an ongoing global pandemic, calls to address systematic racism, long-standing labor inequity and looming financial shortfalls. For leadership, it can be a time to hold on to the past or an opportunity for radical change. Scott Stulen will share how the Philbrook Museum of Art is responding to this moment by connecting to the needs of the community, building a more sustainable organization and redefining how we measure success.

  Scott Stulen is the Director and President ofPhilbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He’s also an artist, curator, programmer and DJ. Previously he was the firstCurator of Audience Experiences and Performance at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Director of the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Photographers and Project Director ofmnartists.org at theWalker Art Center.

  “The Museum We Closed is Not the Museum We Reopen” Virtual lunch talk by Scott Stulen (Director and President, Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, OK).

  History, Cultural Studies, Languages, Humanities, JNBC Lectures
• 

  Jun

  30

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Witness” Virtual lunch talk by Karyn Olivier

  Karyn Olivier creates sculptures, installations, and public art. Her work often intersects and collapses multiple histories and memories with present-day narratives. She will discuss several projects which engage existing monuments and her fabrication of contemporary monuments and memorials.

   

  Karyn Olivier (b. Trinidad and Tobago) creates sculptures, installations, and public art. She has exhibited at the Gwangju and Busan Biennials, World Festival of Black Arts and Culture (Dakar, Senegal), The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of Art, MoMA P.S.1, MFAH Houston, CAM Houston, The Mattress Factory, SculptureCenter, Laumeier Sculpture Park, among others. Olivier has installed work for Mural Arts, Creative Time and NYC and Philadelphia’s Percent for Art program. She is a 2019 Pew Fellow and a recent American Academy in Rome fellow. Olivier is currently an associate sculpture professor at Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

  “Witness” Virtual lunch talk by Karyn Olivier

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Jun

  29

  4:00pm - 5:30pm

  Breaking the Thin Blue Line of Bigotry: How Outcries for Police Reform have led to Calls for Abolition

  Police departments across America are governed by an anti-Black racist code of silence and violence where police have been allowed to kill with almost absolute impunity. We examine this “thin blue line of bigotry” and discuss how public outrage, abolitionist scholars and the organizing the efforts of Black Lives Matter have made the call for police reform a demand for abolition.

   

  Register at https://brown.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qvLUxOEmRJ-gGEOPEyoz1Q

  Breaking the Thin Blue Line of Bigotry: How Outcries for Police Reform have led to Calls for Abolition (Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice (CSSJ))
• 

  Jun

  25

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  Southern New England Native Baskets and the Narrative of “Disappearance.” Virtual Lunch talk by Denene De Quintal

  This talk discusses my research findings to date about how the location and distribution of Southern Native New England objects contribute to the production of knowledge about these tribes and Native peoples, and in particular, how museums’ treatment of these objects reinforces a narrative of their disappearance. “Native vanishing” is a widespread sense that certain Indigenous cultures have disappeared from Southern New England and other areas. Specifically, my research examines the rich and complicated history of the Denver Art Museum’s woven Native baskets from Southern New England.

  Denene De Quintal, Ph.D. is the Assistant Curator for Native American Art in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, & Indigenous Americas department at the Detroit Institute of Arts. As the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow in American Indian Art at the Denver Art Museum, she co-curated the exhibition Eyes On: Julie Buffalohead (2018).

  Southern New England Native Baskets and the Narrative of “Disappearance.” Virtual Lunch talk by Denene De Quintal

  History, Cultural Studies, Languages, Humanities, Identity, Culture, Inclusion, JNBC Lectures
• 

  Jun

  11

  4:00pm - 5:30pm

  Black Lives: Structural Violence, Protest and Change

  Embedded within the American social, political, and economic systems are various forms of structural violences. Over the next few weeks the CSSJ will be organizing a series of conversations, This is America, exploring these violences, their historical roots in racial slavery and possibilities for an alternative future.

  The first conversation in the series, Black Lives: Structural Violence, Protest and Change will take place on June 11, 2020 from 4:00-5:30 PM.

  This event is free and open to all. Please click here to register

  Panelists include Dr. Joy James (Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities at Williams College), Felicia Denaud (PhD candidate in Africana Studies at Brown), Dr. Brian Meeks (Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Brown), moderated by Dr. Anthony Bogues (CSSJ Director).

  Black Lives: Structural Violence, Protest and Change (Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice (CSSJ))

  Government, Public & International Affairs, History, Cultural Studies, Languages, Humanities, Identity, Culture, Inclusion, Social Sciences
• 

  May

  12

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  Virtual lunch talk by Dan Yaeger (NEMA): “COVID and Chaos: How Museums are Navigating the Crisis”

  With 3,000 members throughout the region, the New England Museum Association has been a hub for keeping museums and museum people connected during the coronavirus crisis. Here’s your chance to speak with NEMA Executive Director Dan Yaeger about the latest from the front lines of museum leadership, how people are coping, and the short/long-term prospects for museum careers.

  Dan Yaeger has been NEMA’s executive director since April 2010 and has a 20-year history with museums, most recently as the director of the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, Massachusetts. He has served as a marketing communications consultant to institutions including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Museum of Fine Arts/Boston, Portland Museum of Art, Currier Museum of Art, Mariner’s Museum of Virginia, Old Sturbridge Village, John F. Kennedy Library, and Plimoth Plantation. He holds a BA from Gettysburg College and a master’s degree from Harvard.

  Virtual lunch talk by Dan Yaeger (NEMA): “COVID and Chaos: How Museums are Navigating the Crisis”

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  May

  5

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  “Adaptive Practices: Two Curators Redefine Gathering During a Pandemic.”

  Having been closed for 18 months of renovation, Providence Public Library was scheduled to begin its grand reopening on March 30th, with events and activities designed to bring crowds into the Library’s beautiful new public spaces throughout the weeks and months ahead. Instead, the Library didn’t open, and all public gathering for the foreseeable future has ceased. PPL’s Programs & Exhibitions Director Christina Bevilacqua and Events Coordinator Janaya Kizzie will discuss how they rethought loss, opportunity, resources, and expectations as they developed Adaptive Practices: Six Artists Redefine Isolation and Distraction as a response to the pandemic, and how a humanities lens helped them see their way forward. 
  

  Christina Bevilacqua, Director of Programs and Exhibition and Janaya Kizzie, Events Coordinator, both at Providence Public Library.

  “Adaptive Practices: Two Curators Redefine Gathering During a Pandemic.”

  JNBC Lectures
• 

  Apr

  28

  12:00pm - 1:00pm

  Virtual Lunch Talk by Amelia Grabowski, MA’15: “Crafting the Mini-Exhibit in Your NewsFeed: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Museum Social Media Management”

  How many times a year do you visit a museum (when there’s not a pandemic)? How many times a day do you check your phone? Museums’ social media accounts offer great ways to reach the audiences where they are and create unique experiences that you can’t offer IRL. But, it’s harder than it looks.

  Amelia Grabowski (MA ’15) is a digital strategist, with over five years of experience connecting museums and public history projects to digital audiences in engaging ways. Currently, she is the acting Social Media Manager at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and volunteers with the blog Nursing Clio.

  Virtual Lunch Talk by Amelia Grabowski, MA’15: “Crafting the Mini-Exhibit in Your NewsFeed: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Museum Social Media Management”

  JNBC Lectures