
Akeia de Barros Gomes
Biography
Akeia de Barros Gomes, Ph.D., is the Director of the Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, Newport Historical Society. She is a Visiting Scholar & Adjunct Lecturer at The Ruth J. Simmons Center for Slavery and Justice, Brown University. At Mystic Seaport Museum she served as Senior Curator of Maritime Social Histories, Vice Pres. American Institute for Maritime Studies, and Dir. of Munson Institute. As an anthropologist and archaeologist her research has been extensive on many continents.
Her recent exhibition, Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty and the Sea is a multi-year Mellon Foundation-funded project that recovers the history of the founding and development of the Dawnland (New England) through Indigenous, African, and African-descended maritime perspectives. This project is a cooperative effort with individuals in Dawnland Indigenous, African, and African-descended communities. Akeia is responsible for strategic vision and intellectual thought leadership to Mystic Seaport Museum's Library, Research, Curatorial and Exhibitions departments by overseeing professionals dedicated to advancing the Museum’s academic presence in maritime studies. She also leads development of maritime education as well as sharing findings and stories with museum visitors through exhibitions and programming. Akeia taught as professor of American Studies and Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Wheelock College from 2008 to 2017.
Recent News
Akeia de Barros Gomes, Simmons Center Adjunct Lecturer in Slavery and Justice, grew up in Newport and attended the city’s public schools. She said she is pleased that generations of advocates would have their efforts rewarded with the conversion of the house to a museum of Black history. A member of the NHS board, Gomes has consulted on the Wanton Lyman-Hazard House project.
A CT museum exhibit aims to tell stories of the sea through Indigenous and Black perspectives
"Entwined" is the culminating exhibition for the Reimagining New England Histories project organized by the Simmons Center at Brown University, Williams College, and Mystic Seaport Museum and generously funded by the Just Futures Initiative of the Mellon Foundation.
The depths of these connections are explored at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT–Pequot land–during “Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty, and the Sea,” an exhibition breaking from the Museum’s tradition of telling maritime stories through a colonizer, shipbuilder, industrial, extractive perspective. Before starting any work, “Entwined” curator Akeia de Barros Gomes, Senior Curator of Maritime Social Histories at Mystic Seaport Museum and Simmons Center Visiting Scholar, assembled a committee of indigenous and African descended community members to discuss what they wanted to present and how.
"Entwined" is the culminating exhibition for the Reimagining New England Histories project organized by the Simmons Center at Brown University, Williams College, and Mystic Seaport Museum and generously funded by the Just Futures Initiative of the Mellon Foundation.
Indigenous and Black people tell their seafaring stories at the Mystic Seaport Museum
"Entwined" is the culminating exhibition for the Reimagining New England Histories project organized by the Simmons Center at Brown University, Williams College, and Mystic Seaport Museum and generously funded by the Just Futures Initiative of the Mellon Foundation.