Spring 2025 at the Simmons Center was filled with over 2 dozen events including lectures, panels, performances, walking tours, research cluster gatherings, and educational events hosted at Brown and at partner institutions in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, as well as a virtual conference hosted by the inaugural cohort of Public Humanities MA students. Check out the highlights below.
Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice
Date
June 5, 2025
Spring 2025 Semester Recap
A More Just Curriculum: Reimagining New England Histories Curriculum Launch
January 28, 2025
Over the last three years, the Simmons Center in conjunction with the Reimagining New England Histories Project (RNEH) has sponsored the development of lessons designed to provide K–12 teachers and students with curricular resources that foreground the histories and experiences of the Dawnland’s (New England’s) Indigenous and African-descended communities. The RNEH K–12 Curriculum launch event featured talks by creators of the curriculum and provided the audience with an opportunity to navigate lessons and provide feedback.
Reimagining New England Histories Teach Ins
The Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice and the Brown University Library invited local K–12 educators to participate in The Teach-In: Black and Indigenous Histories focused on the Reimagining New England Histories curriculum. This unique two-part workshop series offered educators an invaluable opportunity to engage with the histories of Black and Indigenous communities in New England, learn from expert historians, and develop classroom-ready materials that bring these vital histories to life for students.
February 8, 2025 – Beyond the Feast: Reinterpreting the Wampanoag-Plymouth Agreement
Presenters on February 8th included Lorén Spears, Brad Lopes, Steven Peters, and Emma York.
March 8, 2025 – Wading in the Waters: Black & Indigenous Voices of the Maritime Age
Presenters on March 8th included Kevin Dawson, Akeia de Barros Gomes, Sarah Cahill, Sofia Zepeda, and Lin Fisher.
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Live Oral History with Fernando Bermudez
February 21, 2025
Fernando Bermudez, who lost over 18 years in New York State maximum security prisons following his wrongful conviction of murder in the shooting death of Raymond Blount in 1991, gave a live oral history talk, organized by the Simmons Center’s Mass Incarceration and Punishment in America Research Cluster and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs Justice Policy Lab.
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Latoya Teague Fellows Talk – “Rituals of Refusal: African Diasporic Storytelling, Writing Practices, and Resistive Acts of Care”
February 28, 2025
In this lunch talk, Dr. Latoya M. Teague, Simmons Center/Watson Institute Joint Historical Injustice and Democracy Postdoctoral Research Associate, discussed Rituals of Refusal, a compilation of ‘story’ and ‘storytelling’ uplifting the myriad ways marginalized people have used writing and creation as a source for uplift, preservation, communal and collective gathering, and record keeping. She recounted the methods of literary activism, reading, writing, learning, and creating that became a method for telling our stories in our own way.
Christopher Baldwin Fellows Talk – “Chains of Captivity: The Atlantic Odyssey of the St. James Shipmates”
March 3, 2025
In this lunch talk, Simmons Center/JCB Joint Postdoctoral Research Associate in Slavery and Justice Dr. Christopher Baldwin explored the centrality of maritime warfare in the formations of racial slavery and the African diaspora in the early modern Atlantic world. It highlights a chapter from his book project reconstructing the forced migrations of twenty-six captives from the African coast through their circuitous voyage across the Caribbean and seizure by a Bermudian privateer. The shipmates’ protracted journey reveals how serial embarkations and captivities compounded the upheavals of the Middle Passage, forcing the enslaved to form and re-form networks of survival across ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds.
The MET in the Text Meets Jason Reynolds
March 7, 2025
During the 2024-25 school year, the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice collaborated with advisors Meg Cresci and Maria Gonzalez of the MET School to develop a literacy program called MET in the Text, during which 12th-grade students have been visiting campus twice a month since September for two-hour sessions. During these sessions, students, their advisors, and Simmons Center Manager of Public Education Initiatives and Community Outreach Reina Thomas read, annotated, and analyzed literary techniques in Jason Reynolds’ books A Long Way Down and For Everyone, along with other smaller texts referenced in Reynolds' work. On March 7th, MET in the Text students attended an event by Jason Reynolds and had the opportunity to ask the author questions, hear from other students across Providence who connected with his work, and learn about his writing process, discipline, and sources of inspiration.
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Breathing Race into the Machine Discussion Group
March 10, 2025
The Simmons Center’s Race Medicine and Social Justice Research Cluster along with Science, Technology and Society (STS), held a study group to discuss the late Professor Lundy Braun’s seminal work, Breathing Race into the Machine.
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Occramer Marycoo: Naming, Identity, Reliquary, and Resilience
March 10, 2025
In this presentation, 2025 Simmons Center Reimagining New England Histories Artist in Residence Sika Foyer examined, through visual art and performance, the life of Occramer Marycoo, his forced entry into the New World, and resiliency during his time in his enslaver Caleb Gardner’s household in Newport, Rhode Island. This event was held in conjunction with the Department of Africana Studies/Rites and Reason Theatre.
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Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacy Run our Prisons
March 31, 2025
In this presentation, Professor Brittany Friedman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, discussed her new book, "Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons." This conversation was a part of the Mass Incarceration and Punishment in America Research Cluster and was made possible by the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice's Mass Incarceration and Carceral State Projects fund.
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Liberal Education and the Current Crisis
APRIL 14, 2025 | Swarthmore College
The Aydelotte Foundation at Swarthmore College, Series on Race, Racism & the Liberal Arts, and the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Slavery and Justice at Brown University presented a thought-provoking conversation on liberal education with Dr. Ruth J. Simmons, distinguished higher education leader, and Dr. Anthony Bogues, Simmons Center Director and renowned scholar in political and intellectual history. Listen to the event recording on the Podalot podcast.
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Seeqan Sessions 2025: Light Growth and Preservation
APRIL 24, 2025 | Mystic Seaport Museum
Seeqan is the season of rebirth and renewal. Across Pequot homelands and ancestral waters, it is the season when the herring return home, new life blooms, and light burns away the darkness. Seeqan Sessions: Light, Growth, and Preservation honored the promise of this Spring season by bringing together knowledge-bearers, scholars, advocates, artists, teachers, and youth from across the Dawnlands plus interested members of the public for conversation, connection, and community. This gathering revolved around water, watersheds, and the oceans with exhibit tours, panel presentations, artist reflections, and discussions.
The first day of sessions featured an opening performance by Rashad Young and keynote conversations by Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, Director, Newport Center for Black History at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, Newport Historical Society and Lorén M. Spears, Executive Director, Tomaquag Museum.
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APRIL 25, 2025 | Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
Seeqan Sessions continued on day two with an opening performance by Jonathan James-Perry.
The morning continued with Session 1 – Conserving History: Slavery and Institutional Reckoning featuring panelists Jonathan James-Perry, Artist and Cultural Worker, Jim Peters, Executive Director Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, St Clair "Brinky" Tucker, St. David's Islanders and Native Community, and moderated by Stephen Tucker, St. David's Islanders and Native Community.
The afternoon Session 2 – Conserving Creative Practice: Wampumpeag featured David Firearrow, Traditional Artist, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Allen Hazard, Wampum Artist and Woodworker, Stone Thomas, Wampum Artist, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, and was moderated by Joshua Carter, Executive Director, Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center.
APRIL 26, 2025 | Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
Seeqan Sessions continued on day three with an opening performance by the Yootay Singers.
The day continued with Session 3 – Conserving Waterways: Ocean Resiliency featuring panelists Rahiem Eleazer, Environmental Liaison, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Bettina Washington, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe of Gay Head, David Weeden, Deputy Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and moderated by Michael Johnson, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
The afternoon Session 4 – Conserving Our Environment: Engaging Communities in Action, featured Zbigniew Grabowski, Executive Director, Alliance for the Mystic River Watershed, Michael Thomas, Member of Board of Directors, Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, Zoe Wu, Director and Secretary, Alliance for the Mystic River Watershed, and was moderated by Maggie Favretti, Co-founder and Lead Director, Alliance for the Mystic River Watershed.
Apology and Repair for Slavery: Grenada as a Case Study
May 1, 2025
What does “reparatory justice” mean, and how is it different from “reparations?” These are some of the questions explored in this CBH Talk by Laura Trevelyan, who in 2016 learned that her ancestors were absentee owners of 1000 enslaved Africans, and Arley Gill, Chair of the Grenada National Reparations Committee, in conversation with Simmons Center Director Anthony Bogues. Watch the event recording here.
Complete Disorder: Resistance and Refusal to Colonial Legacy in the Arts and Humanities
May 8, 2025
This virtual conference was organized as part of the Simmons Center’s MA in Public Humanities course Decolonization of Museums: Nations, Museums, Anti Colonialism and the Contemporary Moment. The conference asked: is it possible to transform cultural and academic institutions from sites of colonial harm into spaces of justice, care, and community? Bringing together museum professionals, scholars, artists, and community leaders, five panels throughout the day explored how museums, archives, and institutions alike are confronting their colonial legacies towards reparative futures.
Souls for Sale: Slavery’s Role in the Growth and Expansion of the Catholic Church and Other American Institutions
May 9, 2025
For the Simmons Center's Slavery and Finance Research Cluster keynote lecture, Rachel Swarns, a contributing writer for the New York Times and a journalism professor at New York University, discussed her recent book, The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. The book and talk explore how slavery fueled the growth of many contemporary American institutions, including universities, religious institutions, and financial institutions.
The Unfinished Conversations Series: Telling New Stories Documentary Film Screening and Discussion
May 22, 2025
To kick off our Commencement Weekend events series, the Simmons Center hosted the Rhode Island premiere of the documentary film The Unfinished Conversations Series: Telling New Stories. The film features excerpts from The Unfinished Conversations Series, a global archive of oral histories documenting the international impact of racial slavery and colonialism. Following the screening, Prof. Antony Bogues, Yannick Etoundi ’26 Ph.D., and Shana Weinberg took questions from the audience.
The Unfinished Conversations Series was catalyzed by the Simmons Center with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture in partnership with museums and communities communities in Senegal; Liverpool, United Kingdom; Africatown, United States of America; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Capetown and the Groot Constantia Wine Estate of South Africa; neighborhoods surrounding Brussels, Belgium; with communities in Kinshasa and the Kimbanguist Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as communities in Jamaica and the Charles Town Maroons. The full global archive of over 150 interviews across four continents is housed at the John Hay Library at Brown University.
The project is made possible through generous funding from Abrams Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.
The Unfinished Conversations Series Exhibition Opening and Reception
May 23, 2025
Racial slavery and European colonialism were foundational planks of the making of the modern world. However, that historical story has yet to be fully told. Catalyzed by the Simmons Center in 2014, the Global Curatorial Project was formed to tell that story. Its mission was to develop an international exhibition showcasing how these global systems shaped the modern world. The project foregrounds the experiences, lives, ideas, and ways in which the enslaved and the colonized attempted to “make a way out of no way.” As it unfolded, new issues emerged – if the voices of the enslaved and the colonized were going to be foregrounded, then how do we create a curatorial practice to achieve this? Out of this unfolding, a new archive was born – The Unfinished Conversations Series.
Digitally archived at the John Hay Library, The Unfinished Conversation Series is a living repository composed of more than 150 interviews that have taken place in nine languages across four continents. Drawing inspiration from the idea of the Black cultural theorist Stuart Hall, that cultural identity and history are not fixed but an “ever-unfinished conversation,” this oral history project was an experiment in decolonial curatorial practice. In this new archive, the descendants of the enslaved and the colonized shared their lived experiences and historical memories.
The Unfinished Conversations Series exhibition is a glimpse into the living repository that has been collected and is part of a broader constellation of initiatives, which includes the international exhibition In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World, publications, documentaries, and a digital humanities project. The opening and reception featured remarks by the exhibition's lead curator and Simmons Center Interdisciplinary Graduate Dissertation Fellow, Yannick Etoundi ’26 Ph.D.
Simmons Center Commencement Open House and Slavery & Legacy Walking Tours
May 24, 2025
For centuries, the institution of racial slavery pervaded every aspect of life in America. Its reverberations still shape the structures of American society today. For Commencement Weekend, families and alumni were invited to the Simmons Center’s 19th-century house for a special open house to meet our faculty, staff, and students. While you are at the Center, guests were able to view the exhibition on display in our gallery, The Unfinished Conversations Series; observe a stunning glass wall art piece, “Rising to Freedom;” and explore our Symbolic Garden of the Enslaved.
Some guests also opted to take a Slavery & Legacy Walking Tour of Brown's campus to learn about the history and legacy of slavery as it pertains to Brown University and the state of Rhode Island. Major stops on the hour-long walking tours included the Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle, Van Wickle Gates, University Hall (Nathanael Green Plaque), and the Slavery Memorial (Manning Hall).
Commencement Forum Book Talk: In Slavery's Wake
May 24, 2025
From Smithsonian Books, “In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World” frames the history of slavery in a global context to show how it created systems of oppression that continue to shape the world today. This powerful collection of essays, brought to life with more than 150 illustrations, investigates the intertwined legacies of slavery, colonialism and freedom. Compelling essays from key historians and scholars trace the contemporary resonances of slavery but also the history of freedom-making, from abolitionism to enslaved and colonized people asserting their humanity to the Black Lives Matter movement.
For this Commencement Forum, participants heard from a panel of the publication editors: Professor Anthony Bogues, director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice; Paul Gardullo, assistant director of history at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC); and Johanna Obenda ’19 A.M., researcher and exhibition development specialist at NMAAHC. A book signing and lively conversation followed the panel and Q&A, moderated by Simmons Center Associate Director of Public Humanities Programs Shana Weinberg.
