It has been a tumultuous time for the country. Conventions which seemed embedded in our society were and are regularly broken. The study of history has become a political football. The concept of academic excellence is being contested. Many programs feel embattled as the terrain shifts underneath them. For us at the Simmons Center, we observe these times and attempt to navigate a path which allows us to continue our mission – the study of racial slavery, its emergence, and how its structures have shaped many societies, including the American nation. We do this recognizing all the time that the study of this history demands rigor as well as an understanding that the telling of that history requires attention to many diverse publics.

In this regard, we note that one of the Center’s achievements was the formal opening in December 2024 of the co-curated exhibition, “In Slavery’s Wake: The Making of Black Freedom.” Working in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Simmons Center, along with a team of international curators, created a major traveling exhibition. Hailed by many critics and already the winner of an award, the exhibition seeks to tell the complex story of racial slavery and colonialism through not only objects but through artwork and the voices and memories of those who were historically enslaved and colonized. The exhibition was the culmination of a decade-long series of meetings, debates, and conversations in the network that was catalyzed by the Center in 2014 – The Global Curatorial Project (GCP).

The unfolding of the project spawned another project: the collection of oral histories in Senegal, Brussels, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jamaica, Liverpool (UK), the Western Cape in South Africa, and Africatown in Alabama. This project, over time, came together as the “Unfinished Conversations Series” and is now a digital repository of major significance. The full archive is housed at the John Hay Library. As the Center, working with its international partners, collected these interviews, it became clear that there was the need for further storytelling, hence the creation of two documentaries to date: “The Unfinished Conversations Series: Telling New Stories,” and “Uncorking the Bitter Truth: Slavery's Legacy in Cape Wine.” All this has meant that the Simmons Center has consolidated itself into a significant public humanities venue. 

In this regard, we note our second achievement. Recognizing that our work in the field of public history had led us into other fields, particularly museum, documentary and curatorial studies, it became clear that the Simmons Center could now begin to create a teaching program which integrated museum studies, public history, and curatorial studies into an overarching public humanities program. Thus, a year ago, the Center became the venue for a revitalized MA in Public Humanities at Brown. The program, building upon our strengths, draws MA graduate students interested in art and history curation, museum studies, and public history. It operates from the standpoint that there is a “public good” in the work of museums. Brown has previously hosted a graduate Public Humanities program, and the current iteration of the program will build upon that record. In these tumultuous times, as an institution, we do what needs to be done to continue our mission in the Brown way – to make a difference in the world. We do so bearing in mind the complex histories of the making of the modern world and the decolonial requirements of the present.

We could not do these things without the fulsome support of all the members of our President’s Advisory Council and our academic advisory board, and so we say thanks to them for all their support. Then, there are the Center’s student workers and the graduate and undergraduate students who work with us, suggesting programs and projects. Of course, none of this could happen without the remarkable staff at the center: Africa Smith, Kiku Langford McDonald, Sabina Griffin, Shana Weinberg, Reina Thomas, Eli Scavuzzo-Duggan and Elena Shih. Our deep thanks as well to all the Center’s donors.

Today, as we look out at a world which seems to be out of joint, the Center will continue its mission – the confrontation of our past in order to build a more just world.