Brown University has received a $225,000 award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures, organized by CLACS. The initiative, titled “Race and Indigeneity in the Americas,” will take place over the 2018-2019 academic year.
The goal of the initiative is to radically shift how we think about racialization—the ascribing of ethnic or racial identities—in North and South America by examining it through an interdisciplinary, comparative lens.
To accomplish this, three day-long workshops will be held over the course of the year, each one framed as a set of questions that scholars from across the social sciences and humanities will ask to better understand how we view race and indigeneity in the Americas. With these workshops we hope to challenge the assumptions and frameworks from which the existing scholarship is written.
Eight monthly seminars, each held at a different Brown center or institute, will complement the more theoretical work accomplished in the workshops. Arts and cultural events are also planned to expand the impact of the ongoing findings and engage the community beyond Brown. Examples include musical performances, art showcases, and more. Stay tuned to our events page to follow all of our exciting events!