Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College, has received a two-year grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for his Smart Cities Research Lab.
This award will provide educational and research support for communities examining the financial relationships between campuses and their host communities through the lab’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes and Wealth Redistribution Analysis Project.
It also helps to support collaboration with the University of Minnesota on The Renewal Project, which provides archival and pedagogical training to project teams at nine institutions working on archival research, curriculum development, and commemorative placemaking.
Funding will support travel, research, training, and workshops in communities both nationally and internationally. In addition, it will support undergraduate fellowships for case studies, program management, and event scheduling.
Housed within the Trinity Social Justice Institute, the Smart Cities Research Lab studies and consults on best practices for building equitable urban communities. Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities, founded the lab in 2021.
Read more about Baldwin’s work with the Smart Cities Research Lab in this story from earlier in the year.
The Elizabeth Elting Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be built on Vernon Street. Construction is scheduled to begin in late spring 2026, with an anticipated opening in fall 2027.
The HartBeat Ensemble residency at Trinity’s Austin Arts Center will launch with ‘Citizen James, or The Young Man Without a Country,’ February 12-21.
Trinity College has named the students with outstanding academic achievement who have earned Faculty Honors for the fall 2025 semester.
In recognition of its strong institutional commitment to community engagement, Trinity College has received the prestigious 2026 Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement.
