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Arts and Humanities
From Delhi to Providence, Karan Mahajan’s ‘The Complex’ culminates 10 years of research, writing
March 4, 2026
In this Q&A, Brown University Associate Professor of Literary Arts Karan Mahajan discusses his forthcoming novel, teaching and multi-genre writing career that spans fiction, criticism and essays.
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Arts and Humanities
Large-scale AI analysis to explore how centuries of knowledge passed through Jewish communities
February 4, 2026
Supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Brown University scholar Michael Satlow will use cutting-edge computational techniques to analyze 18 centuries of traditional Jewish texts.
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Arts and Humanities
Exhibition of drawings by Israeli and Palestinian children is on view at Brown
January 29, 2026
“Innocent Knowledge,” a project developed in a public humanities course at Brown, shares the perspectives of children living amid conflict through their drawings, and is on view at the University through Feb. 20.\
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Arts and Humanities
Exhibitions in Brazil showcase global slavery oral history project led by Brown’s Simmons Center
December 3, 2025
Research led by the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice is highlighted in two museums in Rio de Janeiro in exhibitions that focus on the global legacies of racial slavery.
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Arts and Humanities
Chanelle Dupuis: Finding sweet success in smell studies at Brown
November 24, 2025
The doctoral candidate is leveraging Brown's culture of open inquiry to advance research on the sense of smell through French language and literature, neuroscience and history.
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Arts and Humanities
Art exhibitions at Brown University honor and interpret historic campus elm tree
November 14, 2025
A current solo show and an in-development group exhibition invite the Brown community and the public to create new meaning out of the wood from an American elm that previously flourished on campus.
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Arts and Humanities
Refreshed, upgraded Pembroke Hall is a fitting new home for Brown’s Pembroke Center
October 17, 2025
The newly renovated, centralized home for the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women will enhance collaboration and expand the use of the center’s extensive archives.
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Arts and Humanities
Exhibition that originated in Brown course highlights artwork by Israeli and Palestinian children
October 6, 2025
“Innocent Knowledge,” now on view at New York’s Central Synagogue, shares the perspectives of children living amid conflict through their drawings. \
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Arts and Humanities
From the Studio: Composer Wang Lu scores human history and connection through music and teaching
October 3, 2025
The Brown University music scholar embraces cultures, storytelling and soundscapes to advance “fierce expression” through composition and her dedication to her work with students.\
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Arts and Humanities
Exhibition at Brown responds to University’s Haffenreffer Museum collection of Navajo objects
September 15, 2025
A major solo exhibition by Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege exploring the production and reproduction of Indigeneity is on view at Brown’s David Winton Bell Gallery through Dec. 7.
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Arts and Humanities
From medieval manuscripts to 19th-century laundry, student researchers find history in the Hay
September 4, 2025
The John Hay Library Undergraduate Fellowship Program offers Brown students a unique summer opportunity to engage in intensive, self-guided research with one-on-one support from library mentors.
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Arts and Humanities
Nathan Winoto: From Brown University to a big Broadway break
August 27, 2025
Talent and tenacity landed a member of Brown’s Class of 2025 in New York, where he is co-producing the hit play “John Proctor Is The Villain.”
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Arts and Humanities
Original manuscript of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is a highlight of Brown’s literary archives
August 11, 2025
The one-of-a-kind artifact in Brown University Library’s special collections offers students and scholars insights into the novelist’s writing process.
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Arts and Humanities
Photos: Students master their mediums in summer art courses at Brown
August 6, 2025
From sculpture and digital media to drawing and painting, undergraduate students embrace creativity and advance their skills in visual art courses during the University’s Summer Session.
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Arts and Humanities
In Pre-College course, students uncover new ways of writing through the forgotten and the familiar
July 25, 2025
Instructed by two Brown graduate students, Secondhand Writing encourages young writers to explore archives, museums and antique shops as a way to advance their own creative-writing practices.
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Arts and Humanities
Beyond the pages: John Carter Brown Library exhibition celebrates the making of rare books
June 27, 2025
“Elemental: Crafting Books from Nature” is an ode to the physical book, exploring thousands of years of practical knowledge and natural resources that led to the production of books.
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Arts and Humanities
Brown University Chorus Director Frederick Jodry brings harmonious career to a close
June 16, 2025
In this Q&A, Jodry reflects on a musical journey at Brown that spanned 33 years and culminated in a monumental farewell concert that drew alumni from around the world.
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Arts and Humanities
Q&A with Sydney Skybetter: Exploring new ‘collisions’ among art, movement and technology
June 12, 2025
Skybetter, director of the Brown Arts Institute, prepares to host the 10th iteration of a conference he founded to advance the study of choreography, performance and emerging technologies.
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Arts and Humanities
With $2 million Mellon grant, Brown scholars will unearth a treasure trove of African poetry
May 28, 2025
With support from a Mellon Foundation grant, Brown researchers will build a database of African poetry, complete with poet biographies, scholarship, news coverage and more.
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Arts and Humanities
Photos: The Lindemann lights up with lively Spring Festival of Dance
May 19, 2025
Brown University students performed an array of works during the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies’ annual spring dance showcase.
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Arts and Humanities
‘Wild Stories’ shows the power of ‘bombastic’ and brilliant narrative art
April 23, 2025
An exhibition in Brown’s Granoff Center for the Creative Arts celebrates the artwork of Professor of Visual Art Leslie Bostrom as she reflects on three decades of teaching and painting at Brown.
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Arts and Humanities
Two Brown faculty members win Guggenheim fellowships
April 16, 2025
The prestigious fellowships will support the creation of new books by Yannis Hamilakis, a professor of archaeology and modern Greek studies, and Tracy Steffes, a professor of education and history.
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Arts and Humanities
Free, student-led public art tours at Brown University to run from April to November
April 11, 2025
The Brown Arts Institute will host public art tours every Saturday and Sunday, inviting Brown and Providence community members to explore the University’s distinctive public art collection.
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Arts and Humanities
In Guatemala, painted altar found at Tikal adds new context to mysterious Maya history
April 8, 2025
A newly discovered altar, buried near the center of the ancient Maya city of Tikal, is shedding new light on the 1,600-year-old tensions between Tikal and the central Mexican capital of Teotihuacan.
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Arts and Humanities
Residual Noise festival explores the creative power of sound
April 7, 2025
Hosted at Brown and RISD, the festival celebrated sound’s potential to transform art and society — and The Lindemann’s potential to push the limits of sound exploration for generations to come.
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Arts and Humanities
Staff Spotlight: Behind the scenes with Alexander Haynes
March 6, 2025
As the technical director of Brown’s John Street Studio, Haynes oversees the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies workspace and supports students’ experiential learning in art and design.
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Arts and Humanities
Filmmaker and Brown scholar RaMell Ross nets another Oscar nomination with ‘Nickel Boys’
February 24, 2025
Five years after his first Academy Award nomination, Ross earned a second for his film about a notorious Florida reformatory school, which stars Brown alumni Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Daveed Diggs.
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Arts and Humanities
French-Caribbean artist Julien Creuzet stages immersive, multi-sensory installation at Brown
February 19, 2025
In a site-specific reimagining of the artist’s Venice Biennale exhibition, the installation in Brown’s David Winton Bell Gallery focuses on water as a site of trauma and emancipation and incorporates Rhode Island-made sculptures.
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Arts and Humanities
With graffiti-inspired bubble clouds, whimsical new art installation illuminates Sayles Hall at Brown
February 11, 2025
New York-based interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers created a site-specific installation, “Unsui (Cloud Forest),” which features 10 cloud sculptures that hang from the rafters of Brown’s iconic 1881 Sayles Hall.
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Arts and Humanities
Art history detectives for a semester, Brown students research mystery of the ‘Black Gospel Window’
December 20, 2024
In a hands-on history of art and architecture course, students researched a stained-glass window uncovered in a local church, which may be the first representation of a Black Christ and gospel women.
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Arts and Humanities
From the Lab: Christelle Alvarez illuminates ancient Egyptian insights, encoded in hieroglyphs
December 19, 2024
A collaboration between an Egyptologist and data scientists at Brown aims to make the Pyramid Texts, the world’s oldest surviving corpus of religious texts, widely accessible to a modern audience.
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Arts and Humanities
Brown’s Simmons Center co-organizes major Smithsonian exhibition on global legacies of slavery
December 18, 2024
“In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World” at the National Museum of African American History and Culture prominently features Brown University research, scholarship and artifacts.
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Arts and Humanities
Elijah Golden: Embracing storytelling from the Grand Ole Opry stage to Brown’s classrooms
December 17, 2024
Brown University senior Elijah Golden pursues a varied academic and extracurricular life at Brown while also performing and touring with his family’s three-generation country music band.
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Arts and Humanities
'Blue Moon': Student exhibition of cyanotypes featuring NASA lunar images lands at Brown
November 12, 2024
A collection of silk and cotton prints created by Brown University students and community members is on display at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts through Nov. 16.
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Arts and Humanities
Student-led public art installation in Providence offers a new perspective on visual impairment
November 1, 2024
Following research, development and community collaboration, a team of Brown and RISD students unveiled “The Blind Urban Subject,” where passersby can experience the streetscape through common ocular conditions.
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Arts and Humanities
21st Century Orchestra festival at Brown to celebrate new orchestral music and performance
October 23, 2024
An open-to-the-public festival, from Oct. 24 to 27, will highlight Brown’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center as a premier site for orchestral music performance, experimentation and recording. \
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Arts and Humanities
Exhibition at Brown’s Bell Gallery celebrates the vibrant, textured artwork of Franklin Williams
October 17, 2024
On view through Dec. 8, the new survey exhibition, “Franklin Williams: It’s About Love,” showcases the deeply personal paintings and sculptures the artist has created over the last six decades.
Open details for Exhibition at Brown’s Bell Gallery celebrates the vibrant, textured artwork of Franklin Williams
Arts and Humanities
Gone but not forgotten: Beloved elm tree from Brown sees new life in the form of handcrafted art
October 2, 2024
Eiden Spilker and others from the Brown Design Workshop are repurposing wood from a treasured American elm into sculptures and keepsakes for the Brown community.
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Arts and Humanities
Artist Leo Villareal returns to Brown to reflect on his immersive campus light installation
September 28, 2024
The world-renowned artist and creator of “Infinite Composition” in Brown’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center shared insights on his creative process at a late-September Light in Art and Architecture Symposium.\
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Arts and Humanities
Tuning up: Brown’s cutting-edge Lindemann Performing Arts Center marks its first year
September 28, 2024
As the one-of-kind, high-tech Lindemann Performing Arts Center turns one, artists are just starting to embrace the building’s limitless possibilities.
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Arts and Humanities
Renovated Andrews House reopens its doors as new humanities hub at Brown
September 24, 2024
A breathtaking renovation has transformed the historic building, which housed Brown’s Health Services for eight decades, into a modern, collaborative and flexible space to advance humanities scholarship.
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Arts and Humanities
Studying fossil extraction on Native lands and exploring the depths of untold histories
September 23, 2024
Supported by a Mellon Foundation grant, a Brown historian teamed up with a Lakotan scholar to illuminate overlooked histories of fossil extraction on Native American lands.
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Arts and Humanities
Prestigious grant to enable first major exhibition on 19th century painter Edward Mitchell Bannister
August 28, 2024
A National Endowment for the Humanities grant will enable Brown Professor Dietrich Neumann to develop a traveling exhibition on the long underrecognized African American painter.\ \
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Arts and Humanities
Natan Rodrigues Ferreira: Taking to the stage to broaden access to bilingual community theater
August 15, 2024
Through a summer internship with Rhode Island Latino Arts and Trinity Rep, the rising Brown senior is helping to stage a free, outdoor bilingual performance series for Rhode Island communities.
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Arts and Humanities
With focus on supporting HBCU faculty, Brown library expands access to scholarly digital publishing
July 26, 2024
The Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing institute introduces scholars, many of whom are from historically Black and other minority-serving institutions, to best practices in online scholarly publishing.
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Arts and Humanities
Photos: Community concert, program for local musicians cap off dynamic residency at Brown
July 16, 2024
The University’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center hosted the sold-out Global C.A.F.E., a free and open-to-the-public concert curated by Rhode Island hip-hop artist Chachi Carvalho.
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Arts and Humanities
Brown’s Bell Gallery awarded prestigious two-year Warhol Foundation grant
July 12, 2024
An award from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts will enable the University’s David Winton Bell Gallery to expand public programming for exhibitions in 2025 and 2026.
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Arts and Humanities
Brown University’s John Hay Library acquires former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s papers
July 11, 2024
Harjo’s writing drafts, correspondence, scripts and teaching materials will significantly enhance the University’s scholarly resources from Native and Indigenous writers and performers.
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Arts and Humanities
Student research sheds light on history of Andrews House on Brown campus
May 15, 2024
As Brown’s Cogut Institute for the Humanities prepares to move into Andrews House, the institute engaged two undergraduates in a semester-long research internship to explore the building’s history and significance. \
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Arts and Humanities
Photos: Professional musicians bring final projects by Brown student composers to life
May 7, 2024
Musicians from the New York Classical Players provided expert insights and performed Brown students’ original works as part of a Seminar in Composition course.\
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