October 2025
Following the completion of the fall 2025 Brown 2026 Reads in early October, this month has been packed with events and programming. Former Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan spoke about archives at the John Carter Brown Library. Brown Votes undergraduate fellows spearheaded an event called Voices of Change: The Role of Students in Modern Democracy, which explored the history of student activism in the United States. Brown 2026 partnered with the John Carter Brown Library, the Hay Library, Rhode Island Historical Society, Ocean State Media, and the Rhode Island State Archives to host teachers from across the state for an all-day workshop on the occasion of Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein’s visit. That day Ken Burns showed clips from his and Botstein’s new documentary, The American Revolution, and he spoke with President Paxson in front of a sold-out crowd during family weekend. October concluded with a panel hosted by the PPE Center called The University and the Republic, with more events and programs coming in November. The new Brown 2026 freshman seminar, American Revolution in Popular Culture, is well underway. Let us know if you want your spring 2026 class to be tagged Brown 2026 and promoted on our website. The Oral History of the Brown Class of 1976 has begun, with a final destination of the University Archives. Please contact brown2026democracy@brown.edu to participate, or with any other questions and ideas. Last, stay tuned for a sign-up to judge National History Day, which will take place at Brown in partnership with Rhode Island Historical Society on Saturday, March 28, 2026.

September 2025
As the fall semester is underway, Brown 2026 moves forward by engaging students, the campus, and the larger Brown community. September events included an open house and the Fictions of Revolutions conference at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study (JNBC). The JNBC also hosted two Brown 2026 Reads discussions in September: Mark Blyth spoke with students about Inflation, and Kwame Dawes spoke with students about Sturge Town. Rebecca Brenner Graham’s Dear Miss Perkins and Bathsheba Demuth’s Floating Coast are on the Brown 2026 Reads schedule in October. The Brown 2026 October calendar is full of a wide range of events, including Ken Burns visiting Brown for a series of programs during family weekend. A partnership among Brown 2026, the Hay Library, the John Carter Brown Library, Rhode Island Historical Society, and Ocean State Media is leading a program for secondary school educators from across Rhode Island during the Ken Burns team’s visit. Finally, the newest Brown 2026 endeavor is the Brown Class of 1976 oral history project, which will conduct twenty interviews of members of the Class of 1976 for donation to the University Archives. As always, check our website for updates and contact brown2026democracy@brown.edu to participate in the oral history project or for any questions and ideas relating to Brown 2026.   

Summer 2025
Brown 2026 has been busy this summer. Through UTRA, students have been working on Brown 2026-related projects. Michael Yuze ’26 is researching Brown University during the bicentennial. Aiden Flores ’27 is working in the Brown University Archives reading correspondence of President Keeney, who chaired the national committee culminating in the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities. History education is a key theme for Brown 2026, scheduled to host National History Day for Rhode Island middle school and high school students in March 2026. During the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) annual meeting held this year in Providence, historians presented “Ten Things” about the American Revolution for local educators and partnered on a professional development workshop with Rhode Island Historical Society. More Brown 2026 courses and events are under way. On Friday and  Saturday, September 26-27, Brown 2026 will be collaborating with the English Department on “Fictions of the American Revolution,” a conference at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study. Brown 2026 also welcomes three senior fellows at the JNB Center for the upcoming academic year: Joseph M. Adelman, Professor of History at Framingham State University; Katherine Jewell, Professor of Economics, History and Political Science at Fitchburg State University; and Irene Peirano Garrison, Director of Graduate Studies and Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature at Harvard University. Additionally, Katy Telling joined the John Carter Brown Library as Postdoctoral 2026 Coordinator. For an engaging conversation on Brown 2026, check out Karin Wulf and Kevin McLaughlin on the Rhodes Center Podcast, now rebroadcast on Trending Globally: Politics and Policy. Look for our accelerating events and programming, including dedicated opportunities for alumni, on the Brown 2026 website.

June 2025
Brown 2026 is accelerating into a year of robust programs and opportunities for Brown University community members in 2025-2026. In addition to larger events engaging the campus and beyond, we have a set of curricular and other programs for alumni and students. For example, the next installment of Brown 2026 Reads picks back up in the fall with faculty-author-led discussions in September and October. To learn more about the Brown 2026 mission and objectives, check out the website and co-chairs Karin Wulf and Kevin McLaughlin’s recent appearance on the Rhodes Center podcast with Mark Blyth. Please keep an eye on our events calendar and stay tuned for monthly updates forthcoming on our website. 

May 2025
Brown 2026 is a university-wide initiative exploring the relationship between the university and democracy while engaging the fullest histories of the American Revolution and its legacies. Building on some early programming from the fall, Brown 2026 publicly launched in January 2025, with a signature event “Carrying ‘The Great Force of History’ Within Us” featuring Daveed Diggs ‘04. Brown 2026 Reads kicked off with seven student reading groups that met with faculty authors for energetic discussions about history, politics, and poetry. A few of the other events through the spring semester included Letters from the Corporation of Brown University by Lauren Zalaznick, Creation of the American Republic by Gordon Wood, and Reading the Constitution by Justice Stephen Breyer, the latter which was a Krieger Memorial Lecture in partnership with the Taubman Center. Looking forward to fall 2025, Brown 2026 is excited to partner with a growing list of internal and external partners, while also compiling an interdisciplinary Brown 2026 curriculum. If you’d like your course listed with Brown 2026, or if you’d like to partner with Brown 2026, please contact brown2026democracy@brown.edu.