PROVIDENCE – Brown University announced Tuesday that it received a $4.9 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the university’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.
The university said the money will help fund a partnership with Williams College and Mystic Seaport Museum where scholars will use maritime history to study the relationship between European colonization, dispossession of Native American land and racial slavery.
Titled “Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom,” the project, Brown said, will create new work and study opportunities at Brown, Williams and Mystic, particularly for scholars, curators and students from underrepresented groups.
“A myth in the founding narrative of the United States is the idea of New England as a ‘city on the hill,’ a place founded on the idea of liberty for all,” said Anthony Bogues, director of Brown’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, in a statement. “But it is important to consider that this site of America’s founding was also a site of Native dispossession as well as racial slavery. Brown and Williams have told stories about both of those histories, but rarely have we explored the relationship between the two.”
Brown said that all three partners, over the next three years, will offer several learning opportunities for students of all ages. Both Brown and Williams will create multiple cross-disciplinary courses focused on colonialism and historical injustices.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
