Brown University seeks to recruit an outstanding scholar (tenurable at the rank of Professor) to lead the campus’s signature academic center at the intersection of history, public memory, and restorative justice. We seek candidates from across the Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts who are committed to connecting the transatlantic slave trade, its many legacies, and its broadest diasporic experiences to present-day questions of civic inclusion, cultural identity and collective memory, public policy, and justice. The successful candidate must be able to be appointed as a full professor with tenure in a tenuring department at Brown, and will be appointed to a five-year renewable term as Director of the Simmons Center.
In 2003, President Ruth J. Simmons charged a campus committee to investigate the university’s historic relationship the transatlantic slave trade. The resulting “Slavery & Justice Report” offered a model for institutional self-study now widely emulated by colleges and universities across North America and Europe. The report (now available in a digital second edition) called for a new research center to focus on “slavery and other forms of historic and contemporary injustice, movements to promote human rights, and struggles over the meaning of individual and institutional responsibility.” Launched in 2012–13, the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice was renamed in honor of President Simmons in 2023. The Center sustains a range of faculty-led research initiatives; hosts postdoctoral and visiting fellows; undertakes programming intended for both scholarly and public audiences; collaborates with museums and other cultural institutions across the globe; offers dedicated gallery space to support artistic engagement with slavery and its afterlives; undertakes educational initiatives for K-12 students in Rhode Island and beyond; and has increasingly turned its attention to the histories of slavery and colonialism in New England including the intertwined relationships between local indigenous communities and the African and African-American diasporas. Located centrally on campus, the Center is a meeting point for undergraduates and graduate students, faculty, and members of the local community. The Center currently partners with degree-granting departments and programs on campus to offer courses and degrees, and could pursue in-house courses and degrees in the future. The Center’s annual reports convey the scope and scale of its operations.
In seeking outstanding candidates to lead the Simmons Center, the University will give greatest consideration to the following qualities and qualifications:
To apply for this position, please use the following link: https://apply.interfolio.com/192875. Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, names of three references (to be contacted at a later date). Samples of scholarly work will be requested at a later date. The cover letter should describe the candidate’s research and teaching, leadership experience, and vision for the Simmons Center. In this letter, please address how you would contribute to the research and teaching missions of our diverse and inclusive university community. Review of applications will continue until the position is filled, but best consideration will be given to materials submitted before November 1, 2026. Please direct questions regarding this search to Leah_VanWey@brown.edu.
Brown University provides equal opportunity and prohibits discrimination, harassment and retaliation based upon a person’s race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law, in the administration of its policies, programs, and activities. The University recognizes and rewards individuals on the basis of qualifications and performance. The University maintains certain affirmative action programs in compliance with applicable law.
