The JNBC is expanding its scope and mission to become a center for advanced study with a primary focus on fostering broad public discussion and disseminating academic research and scholarship across diverse disciplines.

With a rich history since its establishment in 1979, the JNBC continues to embrace the ever-changing landscape of public engagement. This new plan represents the next chapter in the center's journey, building upon its two-decade commitment to public humanities and positioning it as a catalyst for communicating the intrinsic value of academic scholarship to the wider public.

The transformation of the JNBC emerged out of discussions conducted about Brown's goals for increasing the strength of its research enterprise across the humanities and the social, physical and biological sciences. By promoting the public dissemination of academic research and scholarship in Brown's areas of academic strength, the JNBC's new mission aligns with the university's strategic plans.

Former Provost Richard M. Locke:  “ The JNBC’s new mission to promote the public dissemination of academic research and scholarship in Brown’s specific areas of academic strength expands upon the JNBC’s long-standing tradition of public engagement... ”

“Brown2026” will consider how the University can best contribute to scholarship, teaching, and programming on the history and legacies of the American Revolution, as well as the role of research universities in a democracy.

Supported by the Office of the President this faculty-led initiative will engage the full University community, reaching across the arts and humanities as well as the social, physical, and life sciences. Programming begins in the fall of 2024:  it will incorporate curricular offerings, research sponsorships, and public events.

Brown2026 is co-chaired by the Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library Karin Wulf and the Director of the John Nicolas Brown Center for Advanced Study Kevin McLaughlin. 

A key component of the new JNBC is the establishment of a Faculty Fellows Program which will provide space in the Nightingale-Brown House and time for scholars from across the full range of academic disciplines to pursue their pioneering research and to interact among themselves and with their peers at Brown over the course of an academic year. 

The Visiting Faculty Fellows Program will be open to faculty working in all of the Building on Distinction Integrative Scholarship themes, from the arts and humanities to the social, physical and biological sciences.

To complement the Visiting Faculty Fellows Program, the JNBC will collaborate with Brown faculty members in aligned fields, organizing a range of dynamic events and activities. 

Colloquia, monthly public lectures by visiting faculty fellows and workshops featuring experts and journalists from digital media and trade publications will provide platforms for in-depth discussions, knowledge sharing, and exploring innovative approaches to scholarship.

The top-ranked peer-reviewed journal, NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, which was founded in 1967 at Brown University to promote new approaches to the study of the novel returned to Brown in July 2023 after a decade at Duke University. Devoted to the best new criticism and theory in novel studies it appears thrice yearly in the Fall, Spring, and Summer.  NOVEL’s new editorial office is now located on the third floor of Nightingale Brown House. Editor McLaughlin is assisted by two editorial assistants and Brown Ph.D. Candidates: Olivia Kennison (Slavic Studies) and Jack Quirk (English).

NOVEL is currently exploring new collaborations with other universities. In connection with this initiative, NOVEL invited Professor Margaret Cohen, Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature, and Civilization, and Director of the Center for the Study of the Novel at Stanford University in Fall 2024.  Events included a conversation with Prof. Cohen on “Ocean Studies and the Novel” hosted by Assistant Editors Olivia Kennison and Jack Quirk, and a lecture by Prof. Cohen on “Connective Concepts across the Ocean: Humanities and the Ocean Sciences.”

JNBC Director, 
Kevin_McLaughlin@Brown.edu
George Hazard Crooker Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and German Studies
Dean of the Faculty Emeritus

Before becoming the Director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study Kevin McLaughlin served as Dean of the Faculty from 2011 to 2022.  During his tenure as Dean, he worked in close collaboration with departments, centers, and institutes across the university to help further Brown’s strategic Plan:  Building on Distinction.  In their resolution awarding him the title of “Dean of the Faculty Emeritus” on behalf of the Brown Corporation President Paxson and Chancellor Mencoff noted: “Under his leadership, the university raised funds for and launched several signature academic initiatives, including the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, the Institute at Brown for the Environment and Society (IBES), and the Center for Slavery and Justice, among others.”   

McLaughlin has been the recipient of research grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Program, and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. He is the author of four books, Writing in Parts:  Imitation and Exchange in 19th-Century Literature (Stanford UP, 1995); Paperwork:  Literature and Mass Mediacy in the Age of Paper (U of Penn P, 2005); Poetic Force: Poetry after Kant (Stanford UP, 2014); and The Philology of Life: Walter Benjamin's Critical Program (Fordham UP, 2023). McLaughlin is the co-translator with Howard Eiland of Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project (Harvard UP, 1999).  He is also co-editor and co-translation, with Susan Bernstein and Peter Fenves, of Walter Benjamin: On Goethe (Stanford UP, 2025, forthcoming). His current book project, provisionally titled "Disappearing Tales," focuses on the French novel from Balzac to Proust.

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