Di-as-po-ra
The Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life is a research center rooted in the study of the Black diaspora.
BLACK Culture / BLACK Life at Dartmouth
The Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life
The Institute engages scholarship from the global Black diaspora and intersecting communities in order to support and expand networks at Dartmouth and beyond. We provide research grants, workshops, colloquia, and seminars that deepen explorations of the role members of the Black diaspora play in knowledge production, scientific discovery, and social formation.
The Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life highlights the expansive scholarship of the Black diaspora, making Dartmouth a focal point for explorations of Black life in all of its permutations. We advance the scholarly, cultural, and creative expression of the Black community at Dartmouth and beyond, illuminating and preserving its connection to the American experience while also exploring the inter-connectedness of the Black diaspora. The Institute serves as a creative collective for communities at Dartmouth invested in pursuits that align with the center's core mission.
One Hundred Days of Baldwin
Our celebration of James Baldwin’s centenary began with the launch of One Hundred Days of Baldwin, a series of video tributes featuring readings of the acclaimed author’s written works. Scholars, poets, staff, alumni, and students produced videos reflecting on Baldwin’s continued importance and global appeal. One Hundred Days of Baldwin culminates in a campus event on November 2nd.
Black Visual Culture / Black Life
The Black Culture/Black Life speaker series and seminar is an umbrella initiative illuminating new research in the arts: music, visual culture, and literature. The series takes place during the winter and spring quarters at Dartmouth, and includes Dartmouth researchers as well as visiting scholars and practitioners. The series themes are as follows: 2025: Black Music/Black Life, 2026: Black Visual Culture / Black Life, 2027: Black Literature / Black Life.
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
Dartmouth College
Columbia University
UMass, Amherst
Clark University
Brooks Museum of Art
-
The book manuscript review competition aids Black Studies scholars outside Dartmouth College who do not have ready access to manuscript reviews at their home institutions. This manuscript review grant allows two scholars to meet on Dartmouth’s campus in the winter, spring, or summer quarters. External reviewers will examine their book manuscripts before publication. The Institute provides funds to bring the scholar and external reviewers (three for each manuscript review) to campus for this endeavor. Priority will be given to junior scholars in tenure-track positions at academic institutions.
To apply for a manuscript review grant, please send your book manuscript proposal (3 pages), a CV, and a one-page manuscript review description to Institute director Kimberly Juanita Brown at ibicl@dartmouth.edu. The description should outline progress on the book manuscript and detail proposed plans for the review. The deadline for the grant application is March 1, 2026.
-
IBICL will provide funds (up to $5000) for Dartmouth faculty members whose research is located in studies of the Black diaspora, broadly conceived. All Dartmouth faculty, lecturers, and postdoctoral fellows are eligible to apply for faculty research grants. Send research grant proposals (1500 words), a research budget, and a CV to ibicl@dartmouth.edu. Proposals are due January 30, 2026
-
All students enrolled at the College (undergraduate and graduate) are eligible to apply for research grants (up to $2500) to conduct independent research on any aspect of the Black diaspora. We are especially interested in work that is comparative or focuses on a particular historical era. Please send a 750-word research proposal to IBICL at ibicl@dartmouth.edu with the subject line “IBICL Student Research Grant.” Proposals are due March 1, 2026.
About the Director
Kimberly Juanita Brown
is the inaugural director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College. She is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of contemporary literatures of the Black diaspora and visual culture studies. She is the author of The Repeating Body: Slavery’s Visual Resonance in the Contemporary (Duke University Press, 2015), Mortevivum: Photography and the Politics of the Visual (MIT Press, 2024), and Black Elegies: Meditations on the Art of Mourning, (MIT Press, 2025). Mortevivum is a co-winner of the Photography Network book prize. She is the founder and convener of the Dark Room: Race and Visual Culture Studies Seminar. The Dark Room is a working group of women of color scholars, artists, and curators whose work examines critical race theory and visual culture studies. Brown is an associate professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth.
About the Associate Director
Christopher S. Chambers
is the Associate Director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College. He is a sociologist whose research focuses on race, identity, queer of color critique, public health and critical race theory. His work has been published in Sociological Inquiry, Psychology and Health, and in edited volumes on systemic racism. Before returning to Dartmouth—where he previously worked in student affairs—Chambers served as Faculty-in-Residence for the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and assistant professor of sociology at Providence College. There, he founded and directed the Intellectual Engagement Community (IEC) program, a faculty-fellowship initiative supporting public scholarship on race, social justice, and community resilience. He has also held positions at Duke University’s Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and at Northeastern University, where he directed and taught in the undergraduate program in Sociology and also in the Department of African American Studies. Chambers holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Texas A&M University.
About the Assistant Director
Jénee A. Potts
is the Assistant Director for the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life. Prior to her arrival to Dartmouth in January 2024, she worked as an account manager and marketing coordinator for a small public relations company based in Los Angeles where most of her clients were Black business owners. In undergrad, she was also active in her community. She assisted with admissions-related events that targeted incoming Black students and was the marketing coordinator for her Black student union for a couple of years.
As she expands her reach across Dartmouth’s campus learning from those before her, she looks forward to helping the Institute continue to connect with the Dartmouth community and beyond.
