Opening on Juneteenth, Newport’s new Center for Black History shares deep roots with the Simmons Center. Directed by Adjunct Lecturer Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, the Center for Black History features an African spirit bundle, once part of the Reimagining New England Histories exhibition “Entwined.” Brown Public Humanities Master’s students helped to conceptualize inaugural exhibitions and conduct research at the center.

This research cluster is reshaping scholars’ understanding of the history and growth of capitalism and brings together the best scholars on this subject in the world. This three-year project is co-led by the Simmons Center and the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).

Reflections from Arman Deendar ’25, Shravya Sompalli ’25, Melaine Ferdinand-King ’25 Ph.D. in Africana Studies, Kevin Carter ’25, Nélari Figueroa Torres ’2, 5Laurie Tamayo ’25, and Dillon Stone ’25

Professor Bogues reflects on the year 2025 within its relations to the Simmons Center highlighting two major achievements including the co-curated exhibition, “In Slavery’s Wake: The Making of Black Freedom” and a revitalized MA in Public Humanities at Brown.

Roberto Lugo plates donated to the Simmons Center adding to a robust display of works the Center has acquired over the years.

This community-based project, housed at Brown University, is a collaborative effort to build a database of enslaved Indigenous people throughout time all across the Americas in order to promote greater understanding of the historical circumstances and ongoing trauma of settler colonialism.

"The Words of Rubel" event at Brown University marked a transformative moment for the Symbolic Reparations Project (SRP) which aims to bridge computational approaches with accessible cultural production.

Reflections from Postdoctoral Fellows Christopher Baldwin and Latoya M. Teague

This project fosters collaborative critical inquiry into the study of human trafficking, as well as cultivates an intersectional framework that acknowledges the ways in which race, class, gender, nation, and sexual forms of power and inequality govern contemporary anti-trafficking efforts.

This research cluster seeks to examine punishment and the U.S. carceral state through an interdisciplinary lens. The cluster operates from the frame that race and anti-Black racism are cornerstones to understanding the vast leviathan of punishment in America.

The making of the modern world was in part constituted by the historical injustices of colonialism and racial slavery. This research cluster is a joint project between the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs and the Simmons Center.