The Imagined New (or, what happens when History is a Catastrophe) is a collaborative project between the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (CSSJ, Brown University) and the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD, University of Johannesburg (UJ)).

This long-term, three part-project provides an interdisciplinary platform for critical exchange and research around African and African Diasporic art practices and curatorship, and the political work of the radical Black imagination.

With contributions by Leora Farber, Anthony Bogues, Surafel Wondimu Abebe, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Riason Naidoo, Françoise Vergès, Cláudia Regina Alves da Rocha, Thomas Lax, Molemo Moiloa, Khwezi Gule, Geri Augusto, Erica Moiah James, Zamansele Nsele, Thabang Monoa and Saidiya Hartman