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| Bingham Center for the Humanities | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bingham Center for the Humanities |
| Established | 1986 |
| Location | Providence, Rhode Island |
| Type | Research institute |
| Affiliations | Brown University |
Bingham Center for the Humanities The Bingham Center for the Humanities is an interdisciplinary research institute based at Brown University that supports humanities scholarship, public programming, and archival initiatives. It fosters collaboration among scholars, artists, and public intellectuals connected to institutions such as Columbia University, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania. The center connects regional partners including the Rhode Island Historical Society, the John Carter Brown Library, the Providence Athenaeum, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.
Founded in the mid-1980s during a period of expansion in humanities institutes, the center built on precedents set by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Mellon Foundation. Early directors drew on models from the Institute for Advanced Study, the Radcliffe Institute, the Newberry Library, and the Folger Shakespeare Library to create fellowship programs and public lectures. Over decades the center engaged scholars associated with the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Getty Research Institute, and the Modern Language Association, while participating in regional initiatives with the Providence Preservation Society and the Rhode Island Historical Society.
The center’s mission aligns with values championed by philanthropic partners such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, supporting research in fields represented by fellows from departments at Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford University. Core programs include residential fellowships modeled on the Guggenheim Fellowship, conference grants similar to those administered by the Social Science Research Council, and public humanities collaborations in partnership with the National Humanities Center and the Aspen Institute. The center sponsors seminars that attract scholars from the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Association, the Association of American Universities, and the Organization of American Historians.
Scholars affiliated with the center have published with presses and journals such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press, Duke University Press, and the University of Chicago Press, and contributed articles to publications including The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and Public Culture. Research topics have ranged from work on figures like Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois to projects engaging the archives of Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Sylvia Plath; and on cultural histories connected to events such as the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. Collaborative volumes have engaged editors affiliated with the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Review, and Critical Inquiry.
The center hosts public lectures, symposia, reading series, and community workshops that have featured speakers associated with the PEN America, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation, the National Book Foundation, and the MacArthur Fellows Program. Programming has connected local constituencies with national figures from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Aspen Institute, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Partnerships have included collaborative events with the Providence Athenaeum, the Rhode Island Historical Society, Trinity Repertory Company, the RISD Museum, and the John Carter Brown Library.
Governance has included advisory boards drawing members from Brown University, the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities, and regional cultural institutions such as the Rhode Island Foundation and the Van Wickle Gates donors. Funding sources combine university support with grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and private gifts from trustees and alumni associated with Brown, Columbia, Harvard, and Yale. The center aligns administrative practices with standards promoted by the Association of American Universities and the American Council of Learned Societies.
Housed within Brown’s campus near the John Hay Library and the John Carter Brown Library, the center maintains seminar rooms, an event auditorium, and office space for fellows and visiting scholars from institutions such as the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the New York Public Library. Its archival collaborations involve collections at the John Carter Brown Library, the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Providence Public Library, and the John Hay Library, supporting research on manuscripts, rare books, and special collections related to figures like Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, Nathanael Greene, and Isabella Stewart Gardner.
Fellows and alumni have included historians, literary critics, poets, and public intellectuals affiliated with Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Princeton University, the University of Chicago, and Stanford University; recipients of awards such as the MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Bancroft Prize, and the Templeton Prize. Notable names associated through fellowships or events include scholars connected to projects on Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, W. E. B. Du Bois, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Sylvia Plath, and Audre Lorde, and public figures tied to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.