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Meet our New Urban Studies Faculty – Keavy McFadden and Shoshana Goldstein
Meet the Team
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We are excited to welcome Dr. Keavy McFadden and Dr. Shoshana Goldstein to CUGS and Urban Studies this fall. Dr. McFadden is the Kelter Postdoctoral Fellow in CUGS and recently completed her PhD in Geography at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Goldstein is Visiting Assistant Professor in Urban Studies and was most recently Mellon Fellow at Princeton’s School of Architecture. Read more about them below.
Keavy McFadden
What is your current position at Trinity and what are you most looking forward to this academic year?
I am a postdoctoral fellow at CUGS. There are so many things to look forward to this year! I am excited to get to know the Trinity community and to work with students. As an urban researcher, I am also looking forward to learning more about Hartford and the many communities and histories that make up the city.
What class are you teaching this year?
I am teaching Community Development Strategies this fall and Global Cities next spring.
What has your educational and professional journey looked like up to this point?
I recently completed my PhD in Geography at the University of Minnesota. I moved here from Chicago where I have lived for the past decade and change (except for my stint in Minneapolis for grad school!).
What do you focus on in your research?
In my research, I focus on education and urban politics in Chicago, exploring two primary avenues: 1) how public assets and community infrastructures are being leveraged for private gain within the education landscape with attention to what instruments, state supported schemes, and mechanisms facilitate this, and 2) how this is being contested and what political solidarities emerge in the process. In my research, I strive to engage in politically engaged research that is done in meaningful collaboration with ongoing struggles for racial, economic, social, and political justice.
What are your favorite books or podcasts?
There are so many! But NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy is definitely up there along with Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
What are your interests and passions?
I love to hike and spend time outdoors – whether camping, backpacking, or just strolling with my dog. I am looking forward to seeing more of New England and getting out to nearby areas like the White Mountains, Green Mountains, and Adirondacks.
Shoshana Goldstein
What is your current position at Trinity and what are you most looking forward to this academic year?
I’m a Visiting Assistant Professor of Urban Studies. I’m most looking forward to teaching planning courses tailored to a liberal arts classroom and learning more about Hartford.
What class are you teaching this year?
Comparative Planning Perspectives, Affordable Housing Policy, South Asian Urbanism, and Migration and the City
What has your educational and professional journey looked like up to this point?
Long story. I studied philosophy as an undergrad, which meant lots of odd jobs after college. I was a cook and a gardener at one point. I found my way to international affairs and worked on many issues related to the vulnerability of women and girls, the role of communication technology in development, among other things. I am an urbanist at heart and ended up getting my Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning at Cornell, where I was able to study languages and do extensive fieldwork in India. Before joining Trinity, I was a Mellon Fellow at Princeton’s School of Architecture.
What do you focus on in your research?
I study Indian urbanism, mainly; how the politics of real estate speculation, placemaking, and migration, are shaping the nature of cities and more recently what it means to have a “right to the city” without the right to participate in procedural democracy or land and property regimes.
What are your favorite books or podcasts?
Right now, I’m into podcasts about the Supreme Court. I also really like the film score podcast Settling the Score, and You’re Wrong About, a podcast that reexamines “events, people, or phenomena that have been miscast by the public imagination”. Books…I am currently enjoying “Season of Migration to the North” by Sudanese Novelist Tayeb Salih.
What are your interests and passions?
My teaching and research obvs. Learning languages. Currently trying to learn Bengali. I think my Duolingo app is set to Yiddish. I am a very serious cook. When I had more time for it, music, i.e. putting together arrangements (singing, guitar, etc.).
