RWU Public Humanities and Arts Collaborative
The Public Humanities & Arts Collaborative (The Co-Lab) at RWU is an interdisciplinary center that brings together faculty, students, and members of our Southern New England communities to promote shared learning and scholarship in the arts and humanities. We're dedicated to amplifying local and regional stories and representations that make historically marginalized communities audible and visible.
Have a question, project idea, or want to get involved? Reach out to Faculty Director, Dr. Elizabeth Rosner at erosner@rwu.edu.
The Co-Lab at RWU focuses on engaging the public in the areas of history, the visual and performing arts, heritage and heritage conservation, space and place, material and visual culture, historical narrative, and public education and intellectualism. Our investigation of topics related to inclusive narratives includes the spoken, the written, the visual, the theatrical, and the embodied, as we imagine the ways that people are both the producers and the products of their geographical and cultural landscapes.
Faculty, students, and staff across disciplines at Roger Williams are engaged in public humanities and arts projects that make underrepresented stories and groups in our region, our country, and around the globe more audible and visible. Working closely with communities near and far, these projects call attention to past and ongoing injustices, as well as the resiliency and creative survival of these groups.
The Public Humanities and Arts minor at RWU gives students the opportunity to connect with our communities and learn about their rich histories, heritage, and cultures. This pathway helps students tackle social issues with a deep understanding of how the past informs the present.
At Thanksgiving Retold, historians Don “Strong Turtle” Brown, Jr. and Richard Pickering joined The Co-Lab in guiding the RWU community through a deeper, Indigenous-centered examination of the holiday’s origins.
Regional public humanities convening seeks to reshape narratives, foster understanding, and drive positive change through enriching dialogue.
A prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities grant assists with creation of new Public Humanities and Arts minor, supports faculty fellows and community partners to develop courses centered on community projects
RWU research team of faculty and students and the Providence Cultural Equity Initiative partner on reparative justice project for Providence Truth-Telling, Reconciliation and Reparations initiative.
Interdisciplinary series examines racial justice issues in Indigenous, Black and communities of color locally and globally, stemming from colonization, civil rights struggles, war, the slave trade, immigration and environmental politics.