With its first payout since reaching $10 million in endowed funds, the Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence will support critical initiatives outlined in the Turnaround Action Plan for Providence Public Schools.

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.

In a virtual conversation at Brown, Isabel Wilkerson, author of “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” called on Americans to “defend true democracy” by resisting the divisions of the nation’s centuries-old social hierarchy.

With continued momentum in support of Brown’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, new BrownTogether gifts and grants are catalyzing research on race and inequity, and supporting students from underrepresented groups.

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.

Hooker, a professor of political science, will draw from the work of Ida B. Wells and Harriet Jacobs to examine how Black communities can fight for change while also finding ways to thrive in the midst of loss.

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.

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.

The crucial fight to do away with systemic racism requires the deep-rooted, long-term commitment of all members of the Brown community, University leaders noted.

The University will permanently endow the Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence, which will provide financial support for the city’s Pre-K-12 students through a range of educational initiatives.

“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.

As communities confront ongoing anti-black racism, University leaders wrote to the Brown community to express deep sadness and anger regarding incidents that continue to cut short the lives of black people.

An essay by Anthony Bogues, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown, anchors a scholarly discussion in the United Nations’ 30th-anniversary Human Development Report.

Three graduate students in archaeology worked with the Historic Cemetery Advisory Commission in Newport, Rhode Island, to create an interactive map of God’s Little Acre, one of the oldest African and African American burial grounds in the country.