In May 2024, a research update on Archives of Slavery and Justice shared new findings on the free and enslaved laborers who built Brown University. Drawing on the Brown Family Business Records, the project reexamines archival materials to uncover names, relationships, and stories that reshape our understanding of the university’s early history.

For Patricia Santos, the Reimagining New England Histories Professional Learning Opportunity was more than professional development, it was a call to teach for justice. Through collaboration with the Curriculum Committee, she helped refine lessons that center Indigenous histories and contributions, ensuring that truthful, inclusive narratives reach classrooms year-round.

In 2024, the Human Trafficking Research Cluster marked major milestones: launching a new book on sex worker health in Rhode Island, continuing collaborative research with Red Canary Song, and preparing to debut “Liberation Atlas,” a digital map of policing violence against Asian massage workers in NYC.

Over the past year, the Race, Slavery, Colonialism and Capitalism Research Cluster deepened its impact through a spring workshop, student-led panels, and original research projects. Graduate and undergraduate fellows collaborated with leading scholars to examine racial capitalism and imperialism, while building community across disciplines and institutions.

A decade-long global research effort led by Brown’s Simmons Center has culminated in In Slavery’s Wake, a landmark Smithsonian exhibition tracing the global legacies of slavery and Black freedom-making. Featuring 150 oral histories, hundreds of artifacts, and contemporary art, the show centers the voices of the enslaved and colonized. It runs through June 2025 before traveling to five countries.

Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty, and the Sea is the culminating exhibition of the Reimagining New England Histories project. Co-created with Indigenous and Black communities, it reclaims maritime histories beyond colonialism and slavery, centering ancestral knowledge, survival, and ongoing sovereignty across 12,000 years of history.

The Mass Incarceration Punishment in America Research Cluster explored the roots and impact of mass incarceration, emphasizing race and anti-Black racism. In 2023–2024, it hosted author talks, live oral histories with formerly incarcerated individuals, and built an archive centering incarcerated voices through its Mass Incarceration Lab.

A decade after opening, the Center was renamed for President Emerita Ruth J. Simmons in honor of her landmark efforts to uncover Brown’s historical ties to slavery. The renaming ceremony featured new campus signage and a special gift to Dr. Simmons: a custom box archiving a decade’s worth of exhibition catalogs, celebrating the Center’s public humanities mission.

The Unfinished Conversations series in Senegal explored the legacies of slavery and colonialism in Saint Louis and Orkadiéré by gathering stories often silenced by public memory. Guided by teranga (care and repair), the series highlighted struggles for freedom, religious resistance, land reclamation, and the survival of enslaved descendants. These testimonies now inform the exhibition In Slavery’s Wake.

The Unfinished Conversations Series is a global oral history and archival project documenting how the legacies of slavery and colonialism shape lives today. Led by the Simmons Center and Global Curatorial Project partners, it has recorded over 200 hours of interviews across four continents, centering community voices often erased from official histories.

During Family Weekend, 2023 Heimark Artist in Residence Renée Elizabeth Neely-TANNER presented an artist talk and exhibition exploring the legacy of the Great Dismal Swamp Maroons. Her work connected their resistance and freedom to the expressive possibilities of abstract art, inviting audiences to reflect on history through a liberatory visual lens.

In its first year, the Slavery’s Financial History Research Cluster gathered Brown scholars to explore how slavery shaped global finance. Through guest lectures and collaborative discussions, the group emphasized "following the money" as key to uncovering new insights into slavery’s role in modern economic systems.

Art and the Freedom Struggle: The Works of Mumia Abu-Jamal (March 1–December 11, 2024) explores artistic expression under incarceration. Curated by Melaine Ferdinand-King, the exhibit draws from Abu-Jamal’s archive and features his art, poetry, and music centered on abolition, Black liberation, and community. The show includes events, a catalog, and a new essay by Abu-Jamal.

In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World is a traveling exhibition exploring the global legacies of slavery, colonialism, and Black freedom-making. Featuring over 100 artifacts, images, and multimedia, it connects history, art, and descendant voices from The Unfinished Conversations oral archive. Co-curated by Brown and the Smithsonian, it will tour five countries from 2025–2028, fostering global dialogue.

Reimagining New England Histories is a four-year collaboration between Brown, Williams, and Mystic Seaport Museum that centers African and Indigenous histories in the region. Supported by a Mellon Just Futures grant, the project produced exhibits, publications, and curricula while building lasting, reciprocal relationships with community partners.

In 2023–2024, the Carceral State Reading Group served as a vital space for dialogue on captivity and repression, engaging with local and global crises. Anchored by Brown’s acquisition of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s archive, the group hosted a public symposium exploring resistance, political imprisonment, and organizing, with lasting materials now available for continued learning and action.

In 2023–2024, the Symbolic Garden of the Enslaved team adapted through their first winter, mulching with comfrey and collecting seeds. They hosted an African-inspired amulet workshop in spring and revitalized the garden in summer with new plantings and structures. They also began building a website to share the garden’s history, symbolism, and plant profiles with the public.

Simmons Center Walking Tour Guide Traci Picard and Simmons Center 2023 Heimark Artist in Residence Renée Elizabeth Neely-TANNER have both been involved the the First Unitarian Church of Providence’s mission to search for truth behind its involvement in slavery.

Every year, distinguished Brown scholars are nominated for Research Achievement Awards by their colleagues for conducting exceptional and transformative research. Amongst the 2025 selection is Manning Assistant Professor of American Studies and Simmons Center Fellow Elena Shih.

In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World explores the history and enduring impact of the global slave trade through an understudied lens: the work of enslaved people and their descendants to build resilience and community through art, rebellion, spirituality and politics.

As a curatorial fellow for the Brown Arts Institute, Simmons Center Public Humanities Graduate Student Christina Young ’26 A.M. provided comprehensive support for Elysee Barakett's poignant installation ‘Presence of Absence’ from conceptualization to execution. Young collaborated closely with Barakett on both the workshop and installation components, coordinating with BAI's marketing team to create promotional material, securing exhibition space in the Lindemann Performing Arts Center, and facilitating installation. Her behind-the-scenes work helped to bring Barakett's deeply personal exploration of loss and memory to the Brown community through this collaborative, 55-foot mural installation. 

Historians at Brown University and Tribal members from across New England are launching a project they hope will bring awareness to the historic enslavement of Indigenous people in North America.