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DEI Faculty Fellows

Beginning in Fall 2020, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in collaboration with the Dean of the Faculty Office and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) launched the DEI Faculty Fellows program. DEI Faculty Fellows provide support to individual faculty, departments, and programs in their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Their work has included providing inclusive pedagogy sessions for new faculty, conducting trainings for faculty search committees, and supporting collaborative efforts to bring speakers and other forms of professional development experiences to campus. Each fellow engages in professional development experiences to enhance their expertise and skills. Fellows work collaboratively with faculty, staff, and students.

2024-25

Aidali Aponte-Aviles, Senior Lecturer and Language Coordinator in Language and Culture Studies

Aidalí Aponte-Avilés earned her first degree in Biology and began her graduate studies in Microbiology in her native Puerto Rico.  However, her true loves were, and still are, literature, comics, film, music and culture. That is why she began her graduate career on Hispanic Studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus.  She finished her PhD studies at the University of Connecticut.  Her research focuses on contemporary cultural production, memory and oblivion.  She is also interested in LatinX, humor, fantasy, sci-fi, video games and history. Dr. Aponte-Avilés serves Senior Lecturer and Co-director of the Blume Language and Culture Learning Center at Trinity College, and is currently working on Voces de la migración / Voices of Migration oral history project in Hartford.  She is also known as Prof. Lay to her audience in her show, Friday class, every Friday, 6:00-9:00 AM on WRTC 89.3.

 

David Sterling Brown, Associate Professor of English

Dr. David Sterling Brown is an award-winning, tenured Associate Professor of English and a proud Trinity College alumnus. He is the author of Shakespeare’s White Others (Cambridge University Press 2023), which was acquired by Tantor Media and recorded as an audiobook, with Brown as narrator. A member of the Race Before Race Executive Board, Brown also sits on the editorial boards for Shakespeare Survey and Shakespeare Bulletin; and he is a member of the American Shakespeare Center’s Board of Trustees. He has published numerous peer-reviewed and public-facing essays and delivered myriad talks. Brown is also an editor and public speaker. In 2021, he received a prestigious Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellowship that facilitated his residency with Claudia Rankine’s The Racial Imaginary Institute, of which he is a full-time Curatorial Team member. The Fellowship also facilitated the development of his professional website (www.DavidSterlingBrown.com) and his virtual-reality art gallery and exhibition—“Visualizing Race Virtually”—that complements Shakespeare’s White Others. His second book, Hood Pedagogy, will also be published by Cambridge University Press.
 

Hannah M. Hagy, Assistant Professor of Physical Education and Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach

Hannah Hagy is an Assistant Professor of Physical Education and Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving Coach. At Trinity, Hagy teaches both beginning and intermediate level swimming courses in addition to coaching the varsity swimming & diving team. Since it was founded in 2020, Hagy has served as a member of the Athletics DEIB Committee helping to create a safe and inclusive environment for all athletes and students on campus. In the 2021-2022 school year, Hagy worked as a professor of physical education and assistant swimming & diving coach at Case Western Reserve University. In this position, Hagy taught beginning swimming, intermediate swimming and a wellness class that focused on all concepts of your wellbeing. From 2018-2021, Hagy served as the assistant swimming & diving coach at Trinity College while earning her Masters Degree in Public Policy. During this time, Hagy helped to grow the program both culturally and in athletic standing among fellow NESCAC institutions.

 

Yipeng Shen, Associate Professor of Language and Culture Studies and International Studies

Yipeng Shen is Head of Chinese Language and Culture and Associate Professor of Language and Culture Studies and International Studies at Trinity College. He received his Ph.D. in East Asian literature, film, and cultural studies from the University of Oregon and held research appointments at Yale University, Fudan University (China), and the National University of Singapore. His recent book is Public Discourses of Contemporary China: The Narration of the Nation in Popular Literatures, Film, and Television (Palgrave Macmillan 2015). He is writing a book on globalization and Chinese youth culture.