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IBICL

The Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life is a research center rooted in the study of the Black diaspora. IBICL fosters research in Black Studies with a particular focus on Black cultural production. 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 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

On August 2, the 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 Culture / Black Life Speaker Series

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

Book Manuscript Review Competition

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 November 18, 2024.

Hortense Spillers Colloquium

During fall 2024 the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life will host Hortense J. Spillers as our inaugural Visiting Scholar in Black Studies. Professor Spillers will also be affiliated with the Department of English and Creative Writing during her stay at Dartmouth. At the Institute, Spillers will facilitate a Colloquium (podcast) which features the esteemed scholar in conversation with researchers on their new intellectual projects. Beginning in October, these conversations will be uploaded as podcasts to the Institute website.

Faculty Research Grants

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 December 2, 2024.

Student Research Grants

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 October 15, 2024.

About the Director:

Kimberly Juanita Brown is the inaugural director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College, where she is also an associate professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing. 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), and Mortevivum: Photography and the Politics of the Visual (MIT Press, 2024). Brown’s third book, Black Elegies is forthcoming in early 2025 (MIT Press, 2025). Black Elegies concerns the art of mourning in contemporary cultural productions.

Brown 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.

Program Coordinator Bio:

IBICL