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Academic Symposia and Performance

On Friday, October 17, Trinity hosted a set of cross-disciplinary conversations and a performance during Inauguration Weekend.

The Inauguration of Daniel G. Lugo as Trinity College’s 23rd president is an opportunity to celebrate the enduring power of the liberal arts in today’s world. Through a set of cross-disciplinary conversations and a performance, we engage some of Trinity’s leading scholars and artists with a broader audience. What are the possibilities and limits of human creativity, and how do we bridge knowledge and practice to advance society? We seek to inspire a robust exchange of ideas about the future of both the liberal arts and higher education.

The two symposia were held in Cinestudio in the Clement Chemistry Building, and a performance was held in the Chapel. Welcome remarks were delivered by Garth Myers, faculty secretary and Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Urban International Studies and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies.

Symposium I: Human Creativity

11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.

Cinestudio

This symposium probes the role of creativity as an essential human skill. Faculty from across disciplines reflect on how creativity shapes their scholarship and teaching, the complex role of technology, and the value of preparing all students to think creatively in a digital world.

 

  • Sarah Bilston, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of English

    Bilston is a prolific scholar of British Victorian literature and an accomplished novelist. Her most recent book, The Lost Orchid: A Story of Victorian Plunder and Obsession, has received rave reviews, including earning a prestigious Kirkus starred review and being featured by NPR and listed by The New Yorker as one of the best books of the year so far. She has received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, and at Trinity, where she chairs the English Department, the coveted Thomas Church Brownell Prize for Teaching Excellence.

  • Pablo Delano, Charles A. Dana Professor of Fine Arts

    A well-known visual artist and photographer, Delano was invited to include his installation Museum of the Old Colony in La Biennale di Venezia in 2024. The installation has since traveled to important galleries around the world and has been critically praised, including in The New York Times. Another collection published as a book, Hartford Seen, was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award. Delano has received a Connecticut Explored Game Changer award, a Hartford Bloomer Award, and at Trinity, the Trustee Award for Faculty Excellence and the Charles A. Dana Research Professorship. He directs the College’s Studio Arts Program and is the co-founder of Trinity’s Center for Caribbean Studies.

  • Kent Dunlap, Thomas S. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Biology

    Dunlap has received many high-profile scientific recognitions, including three Fulbright awards and grants from the National Institutes of Health. His scholarship is impressively far-reaching, with research on tropical freshwater fish to parts of the human body. His recent book, The Neck: A Natural and Cultural History, spans history, art, and science and has found a broad audience, earning accolades across popular venues, such as New Scientist to The Wall Street Journal.

  • Ewa Syta, Charles A. Dana Research Associate Professor of Computer Science

    Syta’s research focuses on computer security, blockchain technologies, and distributed systems. Her current work is funded by a major grant from the National Science Foundation. In 2024–25, she also was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at the National Research Institute in Warsaw, where she worked on a European Union project combining cutting-edge applied research with policy and strategy. She serves as chair of the Computer Science Department and as the faculty lead for Trinity’s Entrepreneurship Center. She has been recognized at Trinity with the Dean Arthur H. Hughes Award for Teaching Achievement, the Outstanding Scholar Award, and the Charles A. Dana Research Associate Professorship.

Moderator: Laura Holt ’00, Professor of Psychology

A Trinity alumna and chair of the Psychology Department, Holt specializes in highly impactful research on substance abuse by adolescents and college students. She is the recipient of a major grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse. She has also been engaged in the design and evaluation of community-based prevention programming, while her own research lab focuses on optimizing the well-being of college students. At Trinity, she has been honored with both the Hughes Award for Teaching Achievement and the Charles A. Dana Research Professorship.

Lunch

12:30–1:30 p.m.

Raether Library and Information Technology Center, Engelhard Reading Room

Inauguration Performance: The Art and Science of Awe

1:45–2:45 p.m.

Chapel

Join us at Trinity’s iconic Chapel for a performance by world-renowned organist Christopher Houlihan ’09, John Rose Distinguished College Organist, director of chapel music, and artist-in-residence. Opening comments will be delivered by Michael Grubb, associate professor of psychology, based on his seminar “The Science of Awe,” offered in collaboration with Houlihan at Trinity’s Rome Campus.

 

Christopher Houlihan ’09, John Rose Distinguished College Organist, Director of Chapel Music, and Artist-in-Residence.

Houlihan is a world-renowned concert organist who has received numerous critically acclaimed reviews, including in Gramophone, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He has performed as a soloist with symphonies and orchestras across the country, and he has appeared at leading venues from the Kennedy Center to the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia to Disney Hall in Los Angeles. A 2009 Trinity graduate, Houlihan studied with John Rose at Trinity and leading organists at The Julliard School and the French National Conservatory in Versailles. He now serves on Trinity’s Music Department faculty, and he directs The Chapel Singers, the oldest student organization at the College.

Michael Grubb, Associate Professor of Psychology

Grubb is a psychologist and neuroscientist who uses experimental methods to understand vital questions, including visual perception, notably in collaboration with Trinity students. For 2022–27, he received a Faculty Early Development Career Award from the National Science Foundation, a prestigious recognition of early-career faculty who have the potential to become leading academic role models in their fields. At Trinity, he has received both the Dean Arthur H. Hughes Award for Teaching Achievement and the Outstanding Scholar Award.

Symposium II: Bridging Knowledge and Practice

3:00–4:15 p.m.

Cinestudio

The second symposium explores the bridging of knowledge and practice as a hallmark of a distinctive liberal arts education. Award-winning teacher-scholars discuss their boundary-spanning work and its public impact, whether in Hartford, nationally, or globally.

 

  • Davarian Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies

    A leading urbanist, historian, and cultural critic, Baldwin is founding director of Trinity’s acclaimed Smart Cities Research Lab; he also directs the American Studies Program. His publications include In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities, which has been featured by universities and organizations around the world. Baldwin frequently provides expert commentary in media outlets, including CNN, The Washington Post, and Time magazine. He also has received major grants and fellowships, including being named a 2022 Freedom Scholar by the Marguerite Casey Foundation and a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organization of American Historians.

  • Shafqat Hussain, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian Studies

    Hussain is an anthropologist who is trained in social and political ecology. His most recent book is The Snow Leopard and the Goat: Politics of Conservation in Western Himalayas. He also is the founder of Project Snow Leopard, a highly successful nonprofit initiative that has received funding from the United Nations Development Programme and was featured by CNN in a 2022 video. For his pathbreaking community-based conservancy work to promote human-wildlife coexistence, he has won both the National Geographic Society’s Emerging Explorer Award and the Rolex Award for Enterprise.

  • Michelle Kovarik, Dr. Henry A. DePhillips, Jr. Professor of Chemistry

    Kovarik conducts laboratory-based research in chemistry and is passionate about applications that cross the boundaries of chemistry, biology, and engineering. Parallel to this, she works in developing best practices for the teaching of chemistry. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation and a Cottrell Scholar Award. She also was recognized with a Centennial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from Iota Sigma Pi, the national honor society for women in chemistry. Currently chairing the Chemistry Department and co-directing Trinity’s Center for Teaching and Learning, Kovarik has received the Trustee Award for Faculty Excellence and the Dean Arthur H. Hughes Award for Teaching Achievement at Trinity.

  • Kevin McMahon, John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science

    McMahon is a prolific, award-winning writer. His most recent book, A Supreme Court Unlike Any Other: The Deepening Divide between the Justices and the People was selected as a 2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. It is the third book in his acclaimed trilogy from the University of Chicago Press. The Supreme Court Historical Society awarded McMahon the Erwin N. Griswold Book Prize for Nixon’s Court: His Challenge to Judicial Liberalism and Its Political Consequences and invited him to deliver a lecture in the courtroom of the Supreme Court. His book, Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race: How the Presidency Paved the Road to Brown, won the American Political Science Association’s Richard E. Neustadt Best Book Award. McMahon was also a Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair at the University of Montreal and was awarded Trinity’s Trustee Award for Faculty Excellence.

Moderator: Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre, Professor of History

Regan-Lefebvre is a historian of modern Britain, Ireland, and British imperialism and chair of the History Department. Her publications include Imperial Wine: How the British Empire Made Wine’s New World, which won the André Simon Award. She also is co-editing the six- volume Bloomsbury Cultural History of Wine. Regan-Lefebvre is president of the Northeast Conference on British Studies and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She was named to the Future 50 initiative of the global wine industry by Wine & Spirits Education Trust and International Wine & Spirit Competition, and she holds a WSET Level 3 wine certification. She has received both the Trustee Award for Faculty Excellence and the Dean Arthur H. Hughes Award for Teaching Achievement at Trinity.

Reception

4:30–5:00 p.m.

Cinestudio Lobby