Following a previous call-to-action asking for recommitment to teach the University's role in slavery, President of Diversity and Inclusion, Matthew Guterl organized with Professors Elena Shih and Emily Owens to reopen the discussion of the 2006 Slavery and Justice Report through a new lecture. They discussed the Report, the Simmons Center's continued work, and the persisting impact that slavery has had on the University and world.

The Simmons Center welcomes a new cohort of seven Public Humanities MA Students to campus in the fall of 2026. This cohort is expected to graduate in 2028.

Author Lizzie Skurnick has embarked on a journey to discover the partially erased black history in New England through her travels. She has taken off to see several historic monuments to black existence and significance in the region, while educating herself on the true stories behind them. Among her stops was the new Newport Center for Black History, directed by Simmons Center Visiting Scholar Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, with whom she spoke and learned about the history of the historic home the center is housed in.

While the presence of Black people in Newport, RI, may be surprising to some, they have played a large role in its history. One that Simmons Center Visiting Scholar Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes knows very well. For this reason, she set out to develop the Newport Center for Black History, which has just been opened to transport people into the perspectives of the formerly enslaved in the region.

Recently, the Yale Group for the Study of Native America and the NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project organized a conference, First America: The Legacies of the Declaration of Independence for Native Nations, with several historians to explore America's 250th Anniversary through a different lens. Among them were author Chris Newell and Simmons Center Visiting Assistant Professor Mack Scott. They convened to discuss the history of Native Americans in the American Revolution.

Simmons Center Director Anthony Bogues and Visiting Scholar Akeia de Barros Gomes shared their insights on the impact of the new Center for Black History in Newport, RI. They both feel that it is an important aspect of teaching about the past, while remaining connected to the present and future of black history.

The Newport Historical Society hosted a ribbon-cutting for the opening of the Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History, where several Rhode Island leaders shared the importance of this center in bringing black history to this part of the state. Simmons Center Director Anthony Bogues participated in the ceremony and the Center for Black History is directed by Simmons Center Visiting Scholar Akeia de Barros Gomes.

Following the discovery of an nkisi, a bundle of spiritual objects that traveled with the enslaved across the Atlantic, in the attic of Newport's oldest surviving home, the home has been transformed into Newport's Black History Center. The Center is directed by Simmons Center Visiting Scholar Akeia de Barros Gomes.

Simmons Center Visiting Scholar and Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History Director, Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, was interviewed about the center's new opening in Newport, RI. She shared that the Center was intentionally designed to place visitors in the shoes of the enslaved who lived in the home and is already positively impacting the community.

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 Akeia de Barros Gomes, Ph.D., Steven Lubar, and Christina Young ’26 A.M.

Reflections from Zawdie Sandvliet and Ningxin Gao.

This research cluster explores the history and persistence of structural racism in biomedicine as it intersects with economic and social conditions. The cluster focuses on reimagining the knowledge we produce about race and health from a social justice perspective.

This endeavor to “follow the money” investigates the technologies of finance that facilitated the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Atlantic plantation complex by developing new perspectives on the financial mechanics of slaving operations and the trade’s relationship to maritime insurance, commodity brokerage, currency arbitrage, banking, and other elements of the financial services industry.

The Simmons Center facilitates a year-long reading group which focuses on historical and contemporary issues of imprisonment, incarceration, captivity, criminalization, and policing. The reading group is a collaboration between various sectors of the Providence community and the Center.