American-Islamic Exchanges in the Long 19^th Century 

was a year-long initiative in 2025-26 that examined the long and rich history of interactions between the United States and Islamicate societies. Spearheaded by Gwendolyn Collaço,  Anne S. K. Brown Curator for Military and Society, and in collaboration with the John Hay Library, the John Carter Brown Library, the Brown 2026 initiative, and faculty from the departments of History and History of Art and Architecture, this truly interdisciplinary initiative explored encounters characterized by a mix of solidarity, fascination and exoticization. In addition to panels and workshops, a symposium in February 2026 brought together scholars to explore these themes through the circulation of peoples, commodities, artwork and texts, and the year-long Fashioning Insurrection exhibition at the Hay Library highlighted the mercantile intersections of imperialism, race, religion and visual culture that transformed revolutionary garb from abroad into American fashion.