Arts and Humanities

Bell Gallery exhibition sheds light on the criminal justice system’s impact

September 7, 2022

Called “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” the exhibition features paintings, sculptures and other works by prisoners, loved ones and advocates.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown anthropologist to deliver prestigious lecture series on ancient Mayan glyphs

August 17, 2022

As the 2023 A.W. Mellon Lecturer in the Fine Arts, Stephen Houston will provide insight on the “wild, raucous energy” of ancient Mayan glyphs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown’s Pre-College Programs welcome increasing share of students from Providence

August 8, 2022

To fuel college access and readiness, Brown University and the Providence Public School District have expanded student outreach and support to recruit and enroll more Providence high school students in Pre-College Programs.

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Arts and Humanities

Lynda Umuhoza: Teaching coding to local campers and inspiring the next generation of women in tech

August 4, 2022

As an iProv summer fellow, the rising Brown sophomore created a new coding class for local students attending summer day camp at Providence recreation centers.

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Arts and Humanities

Summer institute empowers high schoolers to confront historical, contemporary injustices

July 22, 2022

With a deeper telling of Indigenous and African American histories, a pilot summer institute led by Brown’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice aimed to both teach and inspire students.

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Arts and Humanities

Expressive arts program at Brown grants freedom of movement, peace of mind

July 15, 2022

Co-founded by distinguished lecturer Julie A. Strandberg and her former student, Artists and Scientists as Partners (ASaP) symposiums enable people with certain neurological disorders to find joy, connection and longed-for freedom.

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Arts and Humanities

'Creatively driven': First artistic director details vision, priorities for Brown Arts Institute

July 15, 2022

Avery Willis Hoffman, artistic director of the Brown Arts Institute, shares how the fruitful intertwining of scholarship, research and practice will shape the future of the arts at Brown.

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Arts and Humanities

Education scholar at Brown sparks civic engagement in Central Falls and Providence

June 28, 2022

In a series of recent collaborations with local cities and schools, Jonathan Collins has shown how “participatory budgeting” can empower and engage people whose voices are often excluded from conversations about public spending.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown scholar partners with R.I. educators, musicians to study music’s effect on equity in schools

June 21, 2022

Kenneth Wong, an education scholar at Brown, will assess whether a longstanding music enrichment program in Pawtucket is helping to close opportunity and education achievement gaps for low-income students of color.

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Arts and Humanities

Grant to support Brown-led global oral history project on slavery’s legacy

June 6, 2022

With support from a $1.25 million grant from the Abrams Foundation, scholars at Brown are working with partners to collect personal stories that reveal how slavery and colonialism shaped societies across the globe.

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Arts and Humanities

John Hay Library acquires Puerto Rican playwright’s personal papers

May 11, 2022

A new collection of drafts, notes and correspondence from playwright José Rivera gives scholars a window into one artist’s process and provides new perspective on the lived experiences of Latin Americans.

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Arts and Humanities

Kent Kleinman appointed faculty director of the Brown Arts Institute

April 27, 2022

Kleinman, who currently serves as provost at Rhode Island School of Design, will lead the development and implementation of academic programs within Brown University’s Arts Institute.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown music historian weighs in on racism, Russia and Wagner’s legacy

April 18, 2022

Michael Steinberg, a professor of music and history at Brown, has curated a new exhibition on Richard Wagner, one of the 19th century’s most influential and problematic cultural figures, in Berlin.

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Arts and Humanities

In art exhibition and symposium at Brown’s Granoff Center, the conversation turns to conservation

April 13, 2022

The Brown Arts Institute has partnered with Creature Conserve, a Rhode Island nonprofit, to host an exhibition and symposium focused on wildlife conservation and human-animal relationships.

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Arts and Humanities

Immersive exhibition at Brown’s Bell Gallery reimagines Indigenous response to James Cook’s voyages

February 9, 2022

Created by Maōri artist Lisa Reihana, the video installation “In Pursuit of Venus [infected]” adds nuance and Indigenous perspective to the first encounters between South Pacific islanders and European seafarers.

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Arts and Humanities

How gospel music helped power the Civil Rights Movement

January 13, 2022

Ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Charrise Barron, an assistant professor at Brown, discussed the long relationship between Black American music and social justice movements throughout history.

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Arts and Humanities

In music theory class, students learn another kind of storytelling

December 14, 2021

Eric Nathan’s Theory of Tonal Music I course teaches students the mechanics of music — then calls on them to write their own pop songs.

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Arts and Humanities

At Brown, Indigenous students are keeping their native languages alive

December 8, 2021

An independent study project organized through the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative is enabling students to strengthen their knowledge of international Indigenous languages, from Narragansett to Yoruba.

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Arts and Humanities

In yearlong Songwriting Workshop, student and community musicians find their voices

December 2, 2021

The Brown Arts Institute’s free and open-to-the-public Songwriting Workshop provides a welcoming space for musicians from all walks of life to perform for one another and receive feedback on songs in progress.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown senior studying issues impacting migrant communities wins prestigious Rhodes Scholarship

November 22, 2021

One of just 32 Rhodes Scholars from the United States, Alexandra Ali Martínez will pursue a doctoral degree in migration studies at Oxford University.

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Arts and Humanities

Were the ancient Maya an agricultural cautionary tale? Maybe not, new study suggests

November 16, 2021

Many believe climate change and environmental degradation caused the Maya civilization to fall — but a new survey shows that some Maya kingdoms had sustainable agricultural practices and high food yields for centuries.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown Library, HBCU Library Alliance awarded grant to create library leadership program

November 8, 2021

With a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Brown’s library will partner with the HBCU Library Alliance and its member institutions to help library professionals become culturally sensitive, socially conscious leaders.

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Arts and Humanities

Conversations on COVID: Studying the pandemic through cartoons

October 28, 2021

A free lesson plan created by Brown Ph.D. student Michael Dorney uses political cartoons to teach high school students about American politics and society in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Arts and Humanities

In exhibition at Brown, Wampanoag artist draws on tradition to celebrate Indigenous rights

October 7, 2021

On view at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, a belt made of quahog clam shells, deerskin and artificial sinew symbolizes and celebrates a United Nations resolution asserting the rights of Indigenous peoples worldwide.

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Arts and Humanities

Miguel Gutierrez: Coming full circle, from an unexpected angle

October 4, 2021

As a member of the Class of 2021, award-winning performer and choreographer Miguel Gutierrez completed the Brown degree he had begun 31 years before, finding unexpected peace while fulfilling his parents’ dream.

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Arts and Humanities

In Guatemala, archaeologist from Brown helps to uncover hidden neighborhood in ancient Maya city

September 28, 2021

The newly discovered structures provide game-changing evidence that the imperial power of Teotihuacan exerted considerable influence on Tikal, an ancient Maya capital, as part of a campaign of conquest.

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Arts and Humanities

With new federal grant, Brown to host training institute based on digital scholarship expertise

September 14, 2021

A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will establish a training program for under-resourced scholars focused on growing and diversifying interactive, media-rich digital scholarship nationally.

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Arts and Humanities

9/11 at 20: Two decades later, Brown faculty artist reflects on ‘Tribute in Light’ and 9/11 aftermath

September 9, 2021

Paul Myoda, co-designer of the installation that lights up New York City skies every year on Sept. 11 and now a Brown associate professor of visual art, vividly remembers the day the piece debuted nearly 20 years ago.

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Arts and Humanities

Public conversation series to bring local artists, writers, musicians to Brown

September 8, 2021

With a focus on the greater Providence community, in-person conversations at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage will feature the work and ideas of creative public figures.

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Arts and Humanities

In Athens, new Acropolis renovations threaten to erase ancient history, expert says

September 3, 2021

Archaeologists across the globe, including one scholar at Brown, believe recent renovations at the iconic Athens landmark are promoting the site’s classical past — and ignoring the rest of its history.

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Arts and Humanities

In first in-person public exhibition in 18 months, Brown’s Bell Gallery showcases R.I., Mass. artists

September 1, 2021

“Arrows of Desire” features the work of two local artists who bonded over a shared love of nature and the poet William Blake during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Arts and Humanities

What to expect from the Brown Arts Institute in 2021-22 and beyond

July 29, 2021

Leaders at the Brown Arts Institute, which transitioned from the Brown Arts Initiative in July, are planning for a return to in-person performances, exhibitions, film screenings and more.

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Arts and Humanities

With new awards, humanities, social sciences faculty to advance scholarship on freedom, sexuality

July 26, 2021

Prestigious awards from the Institute for Citizens and Scholars will allow assistant professors Elena Shih and Emily Owens to finish book projects on contemporary sex trafficking, and enslaved women in antebellum New Orleans.

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Arts and Humanities

Halle Bryant: Indexing Rhode Island’s Indigenous history

July 14, 2021

The Class of 2021 graduate is working with Rhode Island’s Tomaquag Museum to index 1930s issues of a Native American magazine that sheds light on the lives of Indigenous people in New England and beyond.

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Arts and Humanities

Jeremy Chan: Gamifying the scramble for Africa

July 7, 2021

As a teaching assistant in the history course African Experiences of Empire, Chan is designing board games that deepen students’ knowledge of everyday life in sub-Saharan Africa as European powers were seizing control.

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Arts and Humanities

$5 million gift to fuel new ideas, welcome new leadership at Brown’s Pembroke Center

June 16, 2021

The gift from Class of 1976 Brown alumna Shauna Stark, the largest in the Pembroke Center’s history, will establish an endowed directorship and support bold feminist research by scholars from multiple fields of study.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown alumna captures Pulitzer Prize for study of McDonald’s franchises in Black America

June 11, 2021

Marcia Chatelain, who graduated from Brown with a master’s and Ph.D. in American civilization, won the 2021 prize for the history category for her book “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America.”

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Arts and Humanities

Brown MFA students win prestigious Kennedy Center playwriting awards

June 9, 2021

Graduate student playwrights Nkenna Akunna, Seayoung Yim and Christopher Lindsay were recognized with national awards for writing creative scripts that tackle difficult subjects such as racism, misogyny and “fatphobia.”

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Arts and Humanities

With U.S. National Parks grant, Brown graduate students to unearth stories from Japanese American internment camps

June 7, 2021

A project by two Ph.D. candidates in American studies was awarded $220,000 from the U.S. National Park Service to shed light on the stories of lesser-known Japanese American internment camps from New Mexico to Alaska.

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Arts and Humanities

‘Large Concretised Monument to the Twentieth Century’ installed on Brown’s College Green

May 19, 2021

The University’s public art collection will host British artist Rebecca Warren’s huge bronze sculpture, a comment on gender, identity and the role of monuments in public space, for the next five years.

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Arts and Humanities

As Carnegie fellow, Brown scholar to study psychological toll of civil rights activism on Black Americans

April 28, 2021

A Carnegie Fellowship will provide support for Françoise Hamlin, an Africana studies and history scholar, to write a book on the risks that young people assumed on the front lines of the civil rights movement.

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Arts and Humanities

With Guggenheim fellowship, media and performance scholar to study oceanic history in dance

April 19, 2021

Rebecca Schneider will draw on the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, performance traditions in the Caribbean and the South, and Black feminist thought to understand how performance is linked to oceanic history.

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Arts and Humanities

New center will expand research support, community outreach at Brown Library

April 14, 2021

The Brown University Library’s new Center for Library Exploration and Research promises to strengthen scholarly inquiry and support for high-impact research by scholars on campus and beyond.

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Arts and Humanities

Minecraft concerts on Brown’s virtual College Green offer a pandemic-induced music alternative

March 22, 2021

The Brown Arts Initiative teamed up with members of the student organization Brown Esports and a local artist-producer to create a virtual concert venue replete with whimsical details.

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Arts and Humanities

Virtual festival celebrates 50 years of inclusive dance at Brown

March 17, 2021

A weeklong Festival of Dance from March 20 to 26 will commemorate the 50th anniversary of dance at the University with studio classes, engaging presentations and premiere performances.

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Arts and Humanities

From portraits to pottery, ‘After Hours’ exhibit showcases artistic talents of Brown staff

March 9, 2021

The annual staff art exhibition, curated by the Brown Arts Initiative, is an eye-opening reminder that Brown’s employees are as innovative, thoughtful and bold in their free time as they are at work.

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Arts and Humanities

Initiative aims to create high-impact tutoring programs at schools across the U.S.

March 4, 2021

In the face of the pandemic, the Brown University-based National Student Support Accelerator will work with schools and tutoring organizations to expand access to tutoring for socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

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Arts and Humanities

Digital scholarship initiative brings new life to research topics in the humanities

March 1, 2021

With new Mellon Foundation grant, Brown will advance its foray into digital scholarship, starting with 'Furnace and Fugue.'

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Arts and Humanities

New textbook illuminates African American scholars’ centuries-long crusade for true democracy

February 25, 2021

“African American Political Thought,” co-edited by Brown political scientist Melvin Rogers, reveals the outsize impact many Black thinkers, from Frederick Douglass to Angela Davis, have had on American society.

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Arts and Humanities

$4.9 million grant project to interrogate legacy of colonialism, subjugation in New England

February 2, 2021

Brown University, Williams College and the Mystic Seaport Museum scholars will use maritime history as a basis for studying the relationship between European colonization, dispossession of Native American land and racial slavery.

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Arts and Humanities

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