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.
This year’s cohort of President’s Fellows includes some of Trinity’s most accomplished seniors. These 32 student scholars from the Class of 2027 have compiled exemplary academic records in their years at the College.
The Class of 2026 inductees are Mickey Kobrosky ’37, Susan Cutler Beyer ’85, Kate Hunter ’05, Gustav Detter ’09, Kanzy El Defrawy ’16, and former coach/administrator Chet H. McPhee. Doug Tansill ’61, P’91, ’96 was selected for the inaugural Blue & Gold Award.
The grant for Susan A. Masino, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Applied Science, and David N. Ruskin, research associate professor, will provide summer research opportunities for Trinity students.
A page of 15th century text—hidden for more than 100 years in an uncatalogued scrapbook in the Watkinson’s archives—has connections to famed printer Johannes Gutenberg and may represent one of the earliest generations of European printing.
