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Unlocking History: Tunisian Letterlocking with Jana Dambrogio
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Join the Brown University Library and the Center for Middle East Studies for a workshop and conversation with Jana Dambrogio, conservator, author, and editor, on Tuesday, October 21 at 4 p.m. at the John Hay Library (321).
Free and open to the public. In-person event.
Letterlocking
Reconstruction of original locked letter packet, dated 1817, discussed in talk Offering a glimpse into a new collaborative project on letterlocking from Ottoman Tunis in the early nineteenth century, this talk will reconstruct the intricate folds, tucks, and slits of letter packets secured shut with “letterlocking,” a practice that underpinned global communications security for centuries before modern envelopes.
The speaker Jana Dambrogio has pioneered the study of letterlocking using automated virtual unfolding of sealed documents imaged by X-ray microtomography and computational flattening algorithms. She has co-authored numerous studies on the subject with Daniel Starza Smith, including their latest book from MIT Press entitled, Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter. Dambrogio situates her findings from this case study of Ottoman Tunisian correspondence within a novel letterlocking categorization system based on a study of 250,000 historical letters.
This event will delve into how the materiality of the paper lock itself acted as an antiforgery mechanism in the perilous waters of the Barbary Coast during the early period of diplomacy between the Ottoman regency of Tunis and the United States in the Mediterranean Sea. This session will be in conversation with Gwendolyn Collaço, Anne S.K. Brown Curator for Military & Society at the John Hay Library, who translated the 1817 letter from the Bey of Tunis to American President James Monroe (1817–1825) that Dambrogio analyzes in her work. In their dialogue, they will contextualize the unusual episode surrounding the dispatch of this letter, including American mercantile interests in the region, the response of the Bey of Tunis to violated ceremonial customs, and this dynamic period that transformed diplomatic correspondence between Tunis and its Mediterranean partners. This session features a hands-on demo of letterlocking techniques for audience members to try for themselves.
Jana Dambrogio Jana Dambrogio is the Thomas F. Peterson (1957) Conservator, Wunsch Conservation Laboratory, MIT Libraries. She is also the Director and Founder of Unlocking History Research Group, General Editor of Letterlocking.org and Dictionary of Letterlocking (DoLL).
This event forms part of CMES Research Initiative: American-Islamic Exchanges in the Long 19th Century.
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Critical AI Learning Community – Fall 2025
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The Library’s Critical AI Learning Community (CAILC) meets weekly during the spring and fall semesters on Mondays at noon in the Sidney E. Frank Digital Studio on the first floor of the Rockefeller Library. The meetings will take place in person and online every other week.
All members of the Brown community are welcome to attend. Lunch is provided on a first come, first served basis for in-person attendees.
Register to Attend
Please register to attend for both in-person and online attendance.
Fall 2025 Schedule
- October 20: AI in Medical Education (hybrid)
- October 27: Casual Conversations (in-person only)
- November 3: Deep Dive on AI Agents (hybrid)
- November 10: Casual Conversations (in-person only)
- November 17: Supporting AI-driven Research with Brown’s Center for Computation and Visualization (hybrid)
- November 24: NO MEETING (Thanksgiving week)
- December 1: Discussion with Ellie Pavlick from Brown’s AI Research Institute on Interaction for AI Assistants (hybrid)
- December 8: Casual Conversations / Semester Wrap-up (in-person only)
What is the Critical AI Learning Community?
CAILC is a participant-led learning community where students, faculty, and staff meet to explore and critique artificial intelligence technology and its implications for learners and researchers throughout the Brown community. Learners of all levels and backgrounds are encouraged to share their experiences, questions, and ideas.
Goals
The goals for this community include:
- Become familiar with key concepts and terminology related to artificial intelligence
- Learn the basics of using generative AI tools
- Develop skills for evaluating and critiquing AI technology
- Explore emergent applications of AI technology
- Develop an understanding of the opportunities and drawbacks posed by AI technology
- Explore opportunities for applying critical pedagogy and critical information literacy to our understanding of AI
Community Driven
We shape this community together! The CAILC aims to center issues related to power and social justice, and to explore engagement with the structures that shape our experiences at Brown and in higher education. We encourage all participants to also be contributors — to help design, inquire, and share throughout our lunchtime meetings. Our hope is that participants will discuss and propose their own ideas and share in the stewardship of this respectful, inclusive, and generative space.
Engaging Speakers and Conversations
The meetings alternate between invited speakers or discussions that explore specific themes in AI, and casual participant led, small group conversations. Past themes have included AI, Surveillance and the Military; Exploring Facial Recognition Technology; Building AI for Citizenship Surveillance; Human and System Bias in AI Tools; AI in Medical Education at Brown; and Teaching AI in the Context of Information Literacy.
The goal of the casual conversations is to provide a low-stakes space to explore AI in the context of higher education generally, and Brown University specifically. The conversations focus on practical skills, critical thinking, ethical issues, and social impact. These conversations are an opportunity to ask questions and to learn from one another. You’re welcome to bring your own conversation topics!
Want to know more, or do you have a theme to suggest?
Share it with the team at lorna_dawes@brown.edu. -
Celebrating the Life and Archive of Gay Publishing Pioneer Michael Denneny
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Michael Denneny The friends and family of Michael Denneny and the Brown University Library will host two symposiums in honor of the life and archive — gifted to the John Hay Library — of the late Michael Denneny, the first openly gay editor at a major publishing house. Both events are free and open to the public. Registration is required.
Becoming Real: Introducing the Archive of Gay Publishing Pioneer Michael L. Denneny
Virtual Symposium
- Monday, October 6, 2025 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. ET
- Free and open to the public
- Registration required
Following welcome remarks from Joseph S. Meisel, Joukowsky Family University Librarian, Joseph Denneny, brother of the late Michael Denneny, will introduce the participants, starting with Leo Lovemore, Librarian for History, Society, and Culture, who will provide an overview of the materials in the Michael Denneny Archive.
Panelists
- Bill Goldstein, moderator – Writer and founding editor of the books site at NYTimes.com
- Gina Carroll – Author, TEDx Talk speaker, founder of the writing, editing, and authorship services company Story House
- Keith Kahla – Executive Editor, St. Martin’s Press
- Michael Lee – Researcher, educator, and author of When The Band Played On: The Life of Randy Shilts, America’s Trailblazing Gay Journalist
- Douglas Sadownick – Author and founder of the the LGBT Specialization in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University
- Jason Villemez – Writer and editor
Life, Sex, and Death after Stonewall: A Symposium on the Work of Michael L. Denneny
Hybrid Symposium
- Thursday, October 9, 2025 from 4 to 7 p.m. ET
- John Hay Library, room 303 and on Zoom (link provided to registered attendees)
- Registration required
A native of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Michael Denneny’s extensive personal archive was donated to Brown University’s John Hay Library in 2023. On Thursday, October 9, 2025, the John Hay Library will host a symposium to celebrate Michael’s archive and examine what Michael’s legacy as a publishing pioneer and gay activist can teach today’s generation as it confronts its own crises.
Program
Centered on a keynote address by editor and poet David Groff, who co-founded The Publishing Triangle with Michael in 1988, a panel discussion with scholars, and an overview of some of the treasures from Michael’s archive, the event will address themes from Michael’s life and work, including:
- Channeling the power of literature to formulate a shared identity
- Cultivating friendship networks that inspire action
- Challenging barriers to writers from marginalized communities
- Catalyzing change in the publishing industry
- Confronting the AIDS Crisis through literature
Participants
- David Groff, keynote speaker: Poet, author, editor, educator and co-founder of the Publishing Triangle
- Domenic DeSocio: Assistant Professor of Instruction, Department of German, Northwestern University
- Ernesto Mestre-Reed: Novelist, educator, and longtime friend of Michael Denneny
- Blake Smith: Writer and scholar
- MariaHadessa Tallie AM’20 Ph.D.’25: Interdisciplinary artist, poet, award-winning children’s book author, and Ntozake Shange scholar
Materials on View
Following the symposium, in-person attendees will be invited to view materials from the Michael Denneny Archive.
Michael Denneny
Called a “dean of gay publishing” by The Washington Post, Michael Denneny was the first openly gay editor at a major publishing house. A star pupil of Origins of Totalitarianism author Hannah Arendt, Michael lived out her belief that speech is a form of action by championing authors from communities historically underrepresented in his industry. Authors he signed and edited ranged from Ntozake Shange to Larry Kramer to Randy Shilts.
Not content to operate only within the traditional publishing world, he co-founded the groundbreaking publications Christopher Street magazine and New York Native newspaper to create venues for the gay community to grapple in words with crises from Anita Bryant to AIDS, as well as with the process of LGBTQ+ self-definition that accelerated after Stonewall.
Michael Denneny Archive
The Michael Denneny archive at the John Hay Library includes drafts of Denneny’s own writing, from his graduate research under philosopher Hannah Arendt to work on his final book On Christopher Street: Life, Sex, and Death after Stonewall (University of Chicago, 2023), along with correspondence with friends and writers including Ntozake Shange, John Preston, and others, personal photographs, and ephemera related to late 20th-century New York gay nightlife.