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Commencement Forum | Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict

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Join the Brown University Library for “Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict,” a Commencement Forum on Saturday, May 27 from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. in the Willis Reading Room at the John Hay Library.

Free and open to the public. In-person only.

The curatorial team and experts will explore Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict, the current Library exhibition created in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973) through materials held in the Hay Library special collections. Acknowledging the critical shift in American law and the diverse emotions powerfully associated with the sudden change, the panel discussion, like the display, intends to provoke thought and inquiry rather than present definitive truths.

More information about the exhibit

Commencement Forum | Care & Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health

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Join the Brown University Library and the Warren Alpert Medical School for “Care & Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health,” a Commencement Forum on Saturday, May 27 from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. in the Willis Reading Room at the John Hay Library.

Free and open to the public.

Hybrid event: in-person and live streamed at http://bit.ly/library-forum-23-care-and-custody.

Commencement Forum

In this panel discussion sponsored by the Brown University Library and the Warren Alpert Medical School’s celebration of 50 Years of Medicine, Brown faculty will discuss the history of psychiatry in Rhode Island and the work they have done in this field, including the history and politics of mental health systems, representations of mental health in society, and mental health issues related to the carceral state. Discussion will explore how and whether society has moved away from custodial forms of treatment for people with mental health conditions. Attendees will be invited to view the corresponding exhibit at the Rockefeller Library.

Speakers:

  • Christine Montross, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
  • Jennifer Lambe, Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History
  • Josiah “Jody” Rich, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
  • Moderator: Leo Lovemore, Librarian for History, Society, and Culture

Care & Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health
A traveling exhibition from the National Library of Medicine, hosted at the Warren Alpert Medical School, May 8 – June 17 2023

This traveling banner exhibition and companion website explores the treatment of people with mental health conditions throughout history, especially in the United States, bringing to light the tension that has existed between care and custody. Physicians, advocates, families, and government agencies have all contributed to the shaping of mental health policies. Care and Custody examines this history to understand how the country has moved away from custodial forms of treatment, toward more inclusive approaches, and worked to protect the rights of people with mental health conditions.

Visit the Brown University Library Guide to the exhibit for more information and exploration.

The National Library of Medicine produced this exhibition and companion website, in conjunction with Public Health Historian and Educator, Anne E. Parsons, PhD (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)

Commencement Forum | Nicholas Brown and the Roman Revolution of 1848-1849

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event poster with headshots of Kertzer and Levy plus same details as blog text

Join the Brown University Library for “Nicholas Brown and the Roman Revolution of 1848-1849,” a Commencement Forum presented by Professor David Kertzer on Saturday, May 27 from 9 – 10 a.m. in the Digital Scholarship Lab at the Rockefeller Library.

Free and open to the public.

Hybrid event: in-person and live streamed at http://bit.ly/library-forum-23-Kertzer.

Nicholas Brown and the Roman Revolution of 1848 – 1849

Nicholas Brown and the Roman Revolution revolves around a trove of the titular American diplomat’s recently rediscovered correspondence — one of the most important collections of original manuscripts linked to the Roman Revolution found outside of Italy (Brown was U.S. consul when Pope Pius IX fled Rome). The interactive publication permits a deeper understanding of the historical significance of the Nicholas Brown papers, housed at the John Hay Library.

David Kertzer

David Kertzer joined Brown in 1992 as Paul Dupee, Jr., University Professor of Social Science. A Professor of Anthropology and Italian Studies, he was appointed Provost in 2006, serving in that role until 2011. Kertzer founded and directed the Anthropological Demography program. He was also founding director of the Politics, Culture, and Identity research program of the Watson Institute for International Studies.

A Brown alumnus (A.B., 1969), Kertzer received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brandeis University in 1974. He was William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor at Bowdoin College from 1989 to 1992. Kertzer twice won the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies for the best book in Italian history. Kertzer co-founded and for a decade co-edited the Journal of Modern Italian Studies. He served as president of the Social Science History Association and the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, and co-edited the book series New Perspectives on Anthropological and Social Demography for Cambridge University Press. His book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997 and is published in 17 languages. In 2005 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His book, The Pope and Mussolini, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2015. His most recent book, The Pope at War (2022), tells the story of Pope Pius XII’s relations with Mussolini and Hitler during the Second World War.

About Brown University Digital Publications

Brown University Digital Publications — a collaboration between the University Library and the Dean of the Faculty, generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities — creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown’s novel, university-based approach to digital content development is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age.

BUDP logo

Pizza Nights – Spring 2023

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cartoon drawing of heart shaped pizza

A pizza our hearts go out to you during finals! Is that too cheesy?

Students: Enjoy some free pizza to fortify your studies.

  • Wednesday, May 10 at the Rock (lobby) @ 9 p.m.
  • Thursday, May 11 at the SciLi (Friedman Study Center) @ 9 p.m.

Pizza nights are brought to you by the Library and Campus Life.

Best of luck with finals!

This is your Library. You belong here.

Exhibit l Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict

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Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict text with images of a judges gavel and uterus in the background.

John Hay Library Exhibit Reflects on Two Centuries of Debate over Abortion

Created in response to the Dobbs decision, Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict draws on Brown’s special collections to present open-ended observations on the commonality, history, and debate surrounding abortion in the United States and Rhode Island.

Whether in a court of law, at a protest, or over the kitchen table, abortion rivals any other subject for its capacity to elicit intense emotions and fervent arguments on both sides of the issue. Contemporary society’s shorthand terms for each side — “pro-life” and “pro-choice” — are themselves loaded with the political and moral beliefs that have fueled two centuries of debate over a procedure that dates back millennia.

Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict

In the John Hay Library’s exhibit, Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict, a curatorial team consisting of Brown faculty, graduate students, and medical practitioners of different genders, backgrounds, religions, and ages, as well as different ideological beliefs on abortion, offer original scholarly commentary on artifacts drawn from the Hay Library’s outstanding trove of special collections. With particularly strong holdings in the history of medicine, feminism, political extremism, and collections specific to Rhode Island, the Hay Library is well suited to produce an exhibit on the topic of abortion. According to Amanda E. Strauss, Associate University Librarian and Director of the John Hay Library:

Our strong history of medicine collections and our collecting focus on the interplay between ideology and social and political power provide unique insight into this universal topic. Exhibitions like this are one of the ways in which the Hay Library’s extraordinary collections can be drawn upon to contextualize and deepen understanding of history and current events as well as to put forth new knowledge that we hope will lead to further scholarship.

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn nearly five decades of the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, previously protected by law through the 1973 court decision Roe v. Wade. A vast number of people have been deeply impacted by the decision and its subsequent, ongoing outcomes. Many Brown students and faculty members immersed themselves in thought, conversation, and research about reproductive rights and the widespread role abortion has played in the human experience, including academic exploration of the topic in the Hay Library’s special collections. In response to this interest, the curatorial staff altered its exhibition schedule to make room for an installation in the main gallery that would provide space for scholarly considerations of abortion’s history, controversy, and, in particular, its role in the lives of countless ordinary people, especially women.

Exhibit Artifacts

Exhibit viewers will see artifacts like a set of wrought iron forceps made in Rhode Island in the early 1800s when cesarean section was generally too risky to consider; photographs of pro-life and pro-choice protestors at public rallies; documents from organizations like “Guidelines for Picketing” by Citizens Concerned For Human Life and a Planned Parenthood flier entitled, “A Closer Look at the Violent Opposition”; poetry, editorial letters, and newspaper articles; the 1868 influential publication, Criminal Abortion; Its Nature, Its Evidence, and Its Law by Dr. Horatio R. Storer; and the 1970s booklet Women vs. Rhode Island: Repeal Abortion Laws from the Rhode Island Coalition to Repeal Abortion Laws, a Brown University feminist group.

All of the objects on display are part of the historical record from two centuries of the lived experiences of both prominent and ordinary people in the U.S. and Rhode Island, who were associated with abortion in myriad ways, and who held differing beliefs. While the curatorial team’s focus has been to objectively present the issue of abortion legalization, they acknowledge that with a subject that impacts the lives of so many, complete objectivity is a difficult task. By foregrounding the long and often unacknowledged history of abortion that led up to the Dobbs ruling and the diverse, powerful emotions that fueled this history, the team’s intention with Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict is to provoke thought, discussion, and inquiry rather than present definitive truths. 

Content Warning and Support

Please note: This exhibit includes information and images related to birthing and abortion.

For Brown University Students who need support, please contact Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) at 401-863-3476; help is available 24/7 and 365 days/year. 

Exhibit Dates

Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict will run in the John Hay Library’s main exhibition gallery from May 11 to August 24, 2023. 

Accessing the Exhibit

Building hours and more information about Brown University Special Collections can be found on the John Hay Library’s website.

Related Events

Exhibit Opening Reception
Date and Time: Thursday, May 11, 2023 from 4 – 5:30 p.m.
Location: John Hay Library

Commencement Forum: “Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict” Exhibition Panel Discussion
Date & Time: Saturday, May 27, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: John Hay Library, Willis Reading Room

Contextualizing Taíno Collections | Opening of Student-Curated Exhibition

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Left: Carved stone amulet in a human-like form, ca. 1200–1500 CE (Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology 2012-31-1). Right: Cover of Directorio comercial, industrial y turístico, ca. 1970 (John Hay Library HF3336 .D57).

Join the John Hay Library and Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology for the opening of the student-curated exhibit, Contextualizing Taíno Collections, on Thursday, May 4 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. in the Willis Reading Room of the John Hay Library.

Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served after the speaking program.

The event will feature a keynote presentation by Amanda Guzmán, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Trinity College.

Amanda Guzmán

Amanda Guzmán is an anthropological archaeologist with a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She specializes in the field of museum anthropology with a focus on the history of collecting and exhibiting Puerto Rico at the intersection of issues of intercultural representation and national identity formation. In the context of Puerto Rico’s current environmental and economic uncertainty, her research traces understudied museum acquisition narratives documenting the island’s historical material relations of belonging and exclusion with the U.S. mainland.

Amanda has a demonstrated background handling and interpreting object and archival material in diverse collection-holding cultural institutions. She applies her collections experience as well as her commitment to working with and for multiple publics to her object-based inquiry teaching practice that privileges a more equitable, co-production of knowledge in the classroom through accessible engagement in cultural work. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Pre-Columbian Society of New York, as an Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship Mentor for the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, and a Bronx Council on the Arts grant panelist.

Contextualizing Taíno Collections Exhibit

In this exhibit, student curators share their work to put a new donation of ancient Caribbean artifacts into cultural, historical, political, and contemporary contexts. First peoples of many Caribbean islands developed shared beliefs and practices, which today we call Taíno culture. People practicing this culture were historically erased from Caribbean stories. To make sense of Taíno artifacts recently donated to Brown University, the exhibit focuses on them instead. The exhibit shares collections from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and John Hay Library.

The exhibit is installed in the Willis Reading Room at the John Hay Library and will run from May 4, 2023 – May 26, 2024.

Nicholas Brown and the Roman Revolution of 1848 – 1849 with David Kertzer

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Join David Kertzer, Paul R. Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, and Professor of Italian Studies; Allison Levy, Director of Brown University Digital Publications; Massimo Riva, Professor of Italian Studies; and Deidre Lynch, Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University, for a born-digital book presentation on Tuesday, April 25 from 4 – 5 p.m. in the Digital Scholarship Lab at the Rockefeller Library.

RSVP for in-person attendance requested to [email protected].

Join on Zoom: https://brown.zoom.us/j/98111841198

Nicholas Brown and the Roman Revolution of 1848 – 1849

Nicholas Brown and the Roman Revolution revolves around a trove of the titular American diplomat’s recently rediscovered correspondence—one of the most important collections of original manuscripts linked to the Roman Revolution found outside of Italy (Brown was U.S. consul when Pope Pius IX fled Rome). The interactive publication permits a deeper understanding of the historical significance of the Nicholas Brown papers, housed at the John Hay Library.

David Kertzer

David Kertzer joined Brown in 1992 as Paul Dupee, Jr., University Professor of Social Science. A Professor of Anthropology and Italian Studies, he was appointed Provost in 2006, serving in that role until 2011. Kertzer founded and directed the Anthropological Demography program. He was also founding director of the Politics, Culture, and Identity research program of the Watson Institute for International Studies.

A Brown alumnus (A.B., 1969), Kertzer received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brandeis University in 1974. He was William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor at Bowdoin College from 1989 to 1992. Kertzer twice won the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies for the best book in Italian history. Kertzer co-founded and for a decade co-edited the Journal of Modern Italian Studies. He served as president of the Social Science History Association and the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, and co-edited the book series New Perspectives on Anthropological and Social Demography for Cambridge University Press. His book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1997 and is published in 17 languages. In 2005 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His book, The Pope and Mussolini, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2015. His most recent book, The Pope at War (2022), tells the story of Pope Pius XII’s relations with Mussolini and Hitler during the Second World War.

About Brown University Digital Publications

Brown University Digital Publications — a collaboration between the University Library and the Dean of the Faculty, generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities — creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown’s novel, university-based approach to digital content development is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age.

Reduced Access at John Hay Library, Summer 2023

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North side, accessible entrance at the John Hay Library

This summer, the windows at the John Hay Library will be replaced, and there will also be smaller projects to update spaces above the first floor. As a result of this facilities work, there will be changes to the Hay’s hours and access. Please refer to the John Hay Library website for any changes to our hours and our holiday schedule.

Building-wide

May 31 – September 5

  • The Hay will be open Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
  • Only the first floor will be open to patrons.

July 24 – September 1

  • The front doors will be inaccessible (emergency exit only).
  • Patrons will need to use the north side, accessible entrance.

Gildor Family Special Collections Reading Room

May 29 – June 4

The special collections reading room will be closed.

June 5 – September 5

The special collections reading room will be open on this schedule by reservation only. Please see Visiting the Brown University Special Collections for information about scheduling a reading room appointment.

  • Monday, Tuesday, Friday: 1 – 5 p.m.
  • Wednesday, Thursday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Willis Reading Room

The Willis Reading Room will remain open Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Bopp, Bruhn, Lownes Rooms

The Bopp Room (3rd floor), Lownes Room (2nd floor), and Bruhn Room (2nd floor) will be unavailable from May 29 – September 5.

Classroom Requests

Please place requests for classes through the Brown University Library Instruction Request Form.  Some class sessions may be held in the Special Collections Reading Room, depending on the room schedule, size of the class, and staff availability.

Third Floor

The third floor of the John Hay Library will be closed from May 29 – September 5, including the Anne S. K. Brown Military Gallery.

Library Stats Quest Week – Spring 2023

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students in Willis Reading Room, John Hay Library

Please tell your Brown University Library about your on-site experience during the week of April 3-9, 2023 — Library Stats Quest Week!

Did you know that nearly 20,000 users visit the libraries in-person every week? 

We want to know if the experiences you’re having are meeting your needs. After each visit this week to a library location — Rockefeller, Sciences, Orwig Music, and John Hay Library — please take a few seconds to answer a very brief survey about your experience. Your input will help us better understand why you use the Library and how we can improve our services. 

We’ll also be taking a closer look at how people are using the spaces within the libraries. Library staff will do periodic headcounts in various types of spaces throughout the week. 

We strive to make every visit for every patron one in which you feel welcome, respected, and supported. This is your Library. You belong here. Your feedback is essential.

Thank you!

Zhuqing Li Appointed Head of Library Exploration and Research for East Asia

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Dr. Zhuqing Li

The Library is thrilled to announce the appointment of Zhuqing Li as the Head of Library Exploration and Research for East Asia in the Center for Library Exploration and Research (CLEAR). She reports to the Director of Library Exploration and Research.

Zhuqing previously served as the Library’s Faculty Curator for East Asian Collections on a part-time basis along with her appointment as Visiting Associate Professor of East Asian Studies. As Faculty Curator, she established a stellar record of achievement in teaching and scholarly project development, bringing students and collections together to develop new and exciting scholarly projects that combine traditional and digital methods. Zhuqing led a collaborative, global team of scholars and Brown undergraduates to create Depicting Glory: Rare Objects from the Late Qing to the Republic of China, a digital project that presents a group of rare Chinese objects drawn from across the Brown University Library. 

In her new role, Zhuqing will expand CLEAR’s footprint to include student research-driven experiences rooted in the Library’s East Asian collections and increase scholarly and public engagement centered on East Asian materials.  In addition, she will continue to teach as Visiting Associate Professor of East Asian Studies.

Zhuqing Li

A linguist specializing in Chinese historical linguistics and dialectology, Zhuqing received her Ph.D. in East Asian Language and Literature from the University of Washington and taught at Boston College for 13 years before coming to Brown. Her research has focused on the study of the Chinese language, the historical experiences of Chinese returnees, and the linguistic aspects of Chinese-English translation.

Zhuqing is the author of five books, most recently including Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022), the remarkable true story of two sisters (Zhuqing’s aunts) who were inseparable as children and whose lives are irrevocably disrupted when the “bamboo curtain” drops overnight between Communist mainland China and Nationalist Taiwan. Her other books are Reinventing China: Experience of Contemporary Returnees from the West (Bridge 21, 2016), Minnan-English Dictionary (Dunwoody Press, 2008), The Structure of Fuzhou Dialect (Dunwoody Press, 2002), and Fuzhou-English Dictionary (Dunwoody Press, 1998), as well as numerous academic articles.

Brown’s East Asian Collection

The East Asian Collection, located on the third floor of the Rockefeller Library in the traditionally styled Gardner Room, holds nearly 200,000 volumes of East Asian language print books in addition to print serials, audio-video materials, and electronic resources. The collection was developed from an initial gift of approximately 30,000 volumes donated to Brown in 1961 by the noted sinologist Charles Sidney Gardner. Dr. Li Wang, Curator of the East Asian Collection, and Toshiyuki Minami, Senior Library Specialist, offer students and researchers support in their use of the collection and will continue to collaborate with Zhuqing.