The Ruth J. Simmons Africana Studies Endowed Fund

2012-2013 Goal: $50,000

With broad and significant support from across the Brown alumni community, The Ruth J. Simmons Africana Studies Endowed Fund was established in May 2012. The Fund supports the various initiatives of the Department of Africana Studies.

When I first came to Brown in the fall of 1970 I had no idea that I would return two decades later as a member of the faculty. I became part of a truly extraordinary community of scholars in Africana Studies and a new generation of Brown students walked into my heart.
— Elmo Terry-Morgan '74, Associate Professor

The Department of Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary intellectual center for students, faculty, artists, and scholars interested in the artistic, historical, literary, and theoretical expressions of Africa and the African Diaspora. It houses scholars in the fields of history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, political theory, performance studies, feminist studies, and cultural studies.

The Department's Rites and Reason Theatre develops new plays by students and faculty. Africana Studies sponsors symposia, lectures, debates, a bi-annual film festival, and regular colloquia on African and African Diaspora writing. The Department is also at the hub of a global collaboration project, “The Trilateral Reconnection Project,” with the University of Cape Town and the University of West Indies.

Your gift to this Fund will help support the activities of the department, including Rites and Reason Theatre. The endowment will also fund visiting scholars and artists and support program enhancements that will benefit the entire Brown community.