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

Online and on-site, Brown and its partners ‘top off’ future Performing Arts Center

December 10, 2020

To celebrate the topping-off of its future hub for performing arts scholarship, University leaders joined construction workers and key project partners for a live-streamed virtual ceremony complete with on-site drone footage.

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Arts and Humanities

On its 50th anniversary, Rites and Reason Theatre says goodbye to its ‘beating heart’

December 10, 2020

A virtual fete on Tuesday, Dec. 15, will pay tribute to Karen Allen Baxter, who has served as senior managing director of Brown’s Rites and Reason Theatre since 1988.

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Arts and Humanities

Brown is first non-HBCU invited to join national HBCU Library Alliance

November 16, 2020

The University is the newest member of a nationwide alliance dedicated to preserving and advancing the scholarly and institutional library collections of historically Black colleges and universities.

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Arts and Humanities

Avery Willis Hoffman appointed artistic director of Brown Arts Initiative

October 30, 2020

As artistic director, Hoffman will curate arts programming, including work by students, faculty and external artists and organizations, building the visibility and quality of arts programming at the University.

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Arts and Humanities

New series of discussions, performances and podcasts will focus on the migrant experience

October 20, 2020

A Sawyer Seminar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will fund a series of Brown University-based events and community partnerships focused on migration from and within Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Arts and Humanities

In Indigenous art course, students learn by curating

October 8, 2020

Students in the remote course Indigenous Art, Issues and Concepts, taught by visiting instructor Marina Tyquiengco, will cap off the fall semester by creating their own Indigenous art exhibitions.

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Arts and Humanities

Visiting race and public art scholar confronts legacies of slavery, racism in monuments

October 1, 2020

Renée Ater, who has conducted pathbreaking research at the intersection of race, public art and national identity, will teach courses and create a born-digital scholarly publication as a visiting associate professor of Africana studies at Brown.

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Arts and Humanities

‘Race &’ series investigates origins, history and effects of racism in America

September 15, 2020

The monthly panel discussion series, happening throughout the 2020-21 academic year, will confront and examine the role that racism plays in American public health, democracy, punishment and more.

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Arts and Humanities

With COVID-19 archives, Brown students, faculty and staff aim to diversify the historical record

August 31, 2020

In the midst of the first global pandemic of the digital age, historians and archivists, both at Brown and across the globe, have launched countless efforts to record history in the making.

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Arts and Humanities

Ali Dipp: Building a platform for ‘borderlanders’ in the Southwest

August 6, 2020

Through digital marketplaces, murals and storytelling, the Brown-RISD dual degree student and El Paso, Texas, native seeks to celebrate the unique character of the Southwest.

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Arts and Humanities

Kate Reed: Finding a niche in biomimetic design

July 9, 2020

The Brown-RISD dual degree student is pursuing several summer projects that use cutting-edge technology to connect people to the natural world and to each other.

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Arts and Humanities

Slavery and Justice researcher’s new book chronicles 19th century slavery and empire

June 29, 2020

“Trouble of the World,” by visiting faculty member Zach Sell of Brown University, demonstrates that American slavery transformed labor and production practices around the world, even in places where slavery was abolished.

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Arts and Humanities

Students partner with Providence museum on women’s suffrage digital exhibition

June 16, 2020

Students in an American studies course at Brown worked with the Lippitt House Museum to create a digital exhibition chronicling the history of women’s suffrage and voting rights in Rhode Island and beyond.

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Arts and Humanities

Podcast by Tricia Rose, Cornel West explores African American arts, culture, history and politics

June 12, 2020

“The Tight Rope,” co-hosted by two prominent scholars at Brown and Harvard, respectively, offers in-depth yet accessible conversations about race, social justice and African American arts and culture.

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Arts and Humanities

Student composer caps four years at Brown with a plastic-instrument symphony

June 8, 2020

“Plastic Orchestra,” composed by Class of 2020 graduate Sofia Frohna, celebrates old music traditions while embracing seldom-heard instruments, from melodicas to boomwhackers.

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Arts and Humanities

Slavic literature scholar aims to inspire fellow Ph.D. grads

May 19, 2020

Mira Nikolova, a native of Bulgaria and a doctoral candidate in Slavic studies, plans to draw parallels between Ph.D. students and saguaro cacti in her Virtual Degree Conferral ceremony address on Sunday, May 24.

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