Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice

2024 Annual Report

Breadcrumb

News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Director's Note

Simmons Center Director, Anthony Bogues, reflects on the Center’s 12th year—a time marked by the loss of Professor Lundy Braun, the launch of our pilot MA in Integrative Studies focused in Public Humanities, and the opening of "In Slavery’s Wake", a major exhibition with the Smithsonian exploring Black freedom and the legacies of slavery and colonialism.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: President’s Advisory Council Chair’s Note

The Chair of the Advisory Council, Spencer Crew, reflects on a landmark year for the Simmons Center—honoring Ruth Simmons through the Center’s renaming, supporting a new MA in Integrative Studies, and celebrating a major international exhibition with the Smithsonian while highlighting the Council’s deepening role in advancing the Center’s mission.

Research Clusters & Seminar Series

Research Clusters

News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Human Trafficking Research Cluster

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Race, Medicine, and Social Justice Research Cluster

The Race, Medicine, and Social Justice Cluster reflects on a year of impactful scholarship and the profound loss of Dr. Lundy Braun. Co-led by Dr. Braun and Dr. Taneisha Wilson, the Cluster advanced critical work on racism in medicine and will continue to honor Dr. Braun’s legacy through ongoing events, research, and transformative public health advocacy.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Race, Slavery, Colonialism and Capitalism

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Mass Incarceration and Punishment in America Research Cluster

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Slavery & Finance Research Cluster

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.

Seminar Series

News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Carceral State Reading Group

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.

Events

News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Simmons Center Unveiling

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Heimark Artist in Residence Talk

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Manor Suite: Landscape, Memory & Story

Donnamarie Barnes, Director of History & Heritage at Sylvester Manor—the most intact plantation remnant north of Virginia—joined the Simmons Center to explore how stories of the land and its people are uncovered and reimagined through photography, storytelling, and preservation at this historic Long Island site.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Doing Public Humanities Today

As part of the 2023 Black Alumni Reunion, former Ruth J. Simmons Center fellows reflected on their journeys as leaders in curation, preservation, and interpretation. Sharing insights from their work in museums and cultural institutions, they discussed how the Center’s community and vision continue to shape public humanities and the pursuit of restorative justice.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: In Conversation: Black and Indigenous Histories and Pedagogies Symposium & Gathering

Hosted by the Simmons Center and NAISI, "In Conversation" brought together Black and Indigenous scholars, educators, and community historians for two days of dialogue on teaching and preserving these intertwined histories. The symposium fostered collaboration across disciplines and communities, centering knowledge sharing, listening, and learning.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: UNESCO Mapping Global Anti-Black Racism Meeting at Brown

At UNESCO’s request, the Simmons Center is leading a global project mapping anti-Black racism. After two years of collaboration with scholars and activists across Africa and the Caribbean, the project’s Steering Committee met at Brown in March 2024 to finalize the report, slated for publication in late 2025.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: George Lamming: Literature, History and the Politics of Decolonization – A Tribute

At a conference honoring George Lamming, Professor Brian Meeks examined Lamming’s political vision for a unified Caribbean. Through his edited volume "On the Canvas of this World," Lamming brought together leading regional thinkers to imagine an expansive, inclusive anti-colonial future—one that continues to illuminate paths forward amid today’s global challenges.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: The Imagined New Book Launch

The Simmons Center hosted a book launch for The Imagined New (or what happens when History is a Catastrophe?), edited by Anthony Bogues, Leora Farber, Zamansele Nsele, and Surafel Wondimu Abebe. Panelists Brian Meeks, Lindsay Caplan, and Geri Augusto joined Bogues for a discussion moderated by Philip Gould, exploring art’s power to challenge history and reimagine the African Diaspora’s futures.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Archives of Slavery and Justice: A Research Update

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.

Public Humanities Projects

At the Simmons Center

News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Art and the Freedom Struggle: The Works of Mumia Abu-Jamal

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Symbolic Garden of the Enslaved

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.

Global Curatorial Project

News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Unfinished Conversations and Teranga praxis of care and repair in Senegal

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Unfinished Conversations

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.

Reimagining New England Histories

News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Reflecting Back & Rippling Onward: Reimagining New England Histories, 2021–2025

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty, and the Sea Exhibition

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.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Reclaiming Stories: A Fellow’s Journey in Reimagining New England Histories

During her fellowship with the Reimagining New England Histories project, Cheryll Toney Holley worked to amplify Black and Indigenous voices and challenge traditional narratives of the region’s past. Serving on exhibition, K–12 curriculum, and publication committees, she helped develop community-centered educational materials and public history projects.

Public Engagement & Education

News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Creating Curricula in Community

The Reimagining New England Histories Curriculum Committee is developing free, inclusive lesson plans that center Black and Indigenous experiences across the Dawnland. Supported by the Simmons Center, the team is creating an interactive website to make these resources accessible to educators and aligned with state standards.
News from the Simmons Center

2024 Annual Report Update: Reclaiming Stories: Professional Learning Opportunity Reflection

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.

Students, Fellows & Staff

News from the Simmons Center

Introducing New Public Humanities Students

The Simmons Center is excited to welcome our first cohort of Public Humanities MA Students to campus in the fall of 2024. This cohort is expected to graduate in 2026.

Acknowledgements

In Memoriam: Lundy Braun

Gratitude to All Our Supporters

The work of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice would not be possible without the support of the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, and the Office of the Dean of the College. Thank you to all the dedicated individuals on the President’s Advisory Council on the Simmons Center and the Faculty Advisory Board who continue to provide guidance for our work.

The Simmons Center would like to sincerely thank our major donors for their support: 

  • Ms. Barbara and Mr. Tom G. Bale ’63
  • Sheryl D. Brissett Chapman '71 LHD'19 hon.
  • Mrs. Emily H. Cavanagh '91 and Mr. Michael Cavanagh
  • Ms. Alana K. Choquette '96 and Mr. Paul J. Choquette, III '97
  • Mrs. Ann S. Coles '63
  • Mr. Edouard Duval-Carrie
  • Ms. Donna Emma P'17, P'20 and Mr. Larry Davis P'17, P'20
  • Mr. David Haas '78
  • Ms. Holly R. Hagens '93 and Mr. Todd Sisitsky
  • Mrs. Libby A. Heimark '76, P'11, P'14, P'17 and Mr. Craig F. Heimark '76, P'11, P'14, P'17
  • Ms. Sharon and Mr. Joseph Holston
  • Mr. Daniel L. Kurtz '65 and Ms. Shveta Kakar
  • Ms. Debra L. Lee '76 LHD'14 hon.
  • Dr. Dennis Lee, M.D. '95 and Dr. Heena K. Lee
  • Mr. Luis A. Lopez '90, P'26
  • Christina H. Paxson, Ph.D. and Ari Gabinet P'19, PMD'20
  • Mrs. Patricia and Mr. Timothy R. Schantz '73
  • Ruth J. Simmons, Ph.D. LHD'12 hon.
  • Mr. E. Paul Sorensen '71, ScM'75, PhD'77, LHD'19 hon., P'06, P'06 and Ms. Joan Wernig Sorensen '72, LHD'19 hon., P'06, P'06
  • Ms. Ricki Stern P'19, P'21 and Mr. Evan C. Guillemin P'19, P'21
  • Mr. Preston C. Tisdale '73, P'10, P'10 MPH'16 MD'16, P'12 and Mrs. Maria d. Tisdale P'10, P'10 MPH'16 MD'16, P'12
  • Mr. Lawrence H. Title '67, P'13
  • Ms. Mary E. Vascellaro '74, LHD'24 hon., P'07 and Mr. Jerome C. Vascellaro '74, LHD'24 hon., P'07
  • Abrams Foundation
  • American Endowment Foundation
  • The Mellon Foundation
  • Firelight Media
  • Jewish Community Foundation
  • The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
  • The Wyncote Foundation
  • Anonymous Donors

We also wish to thank the Friends of the Center for all of their work since the beginning. Each year the work of the Center broadens and deepens. Each contribution sustains our work. A special thanks to Elise Kirk and Erin Wells Design for providing graphic design support to the Center, to Rythum Vinoben for his exceptional photography, and to Ben Kaplan, our exhibition installer. Finally, we would like to especially thank Nelson Ramos, Danny Lapati, and Robert Farizer, the Center’s caretakers and groundskeeper, for creating the clean and beautiful spaces in which we can do this work.