Trinity Receives Mellon Foundation Grant to Support Environmental Justice in Hartford

The Mellon Foundation has awarded Trinity College a Higher Learning grant to support the new project, “Urban Environmental Justice in Hartford.”

A three-year, $500,000 grant will fund a humanities-centered project of community engagement, student and faculty research, and curricular development. The project was proposed by Trinity’s Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS), Center for Hartford Engagement and Research (CHER), and Center for Caribbean Studies (CCS).

The three Trinity centers will work in close collaboration with Hartford-based community partners at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (HBSC), which aims to advance social justice and literary activism, and the Center for Justice and Leadership (CLJ), which houses the Greater Hartford Interfaith Action Alliance (GHIAA).

During nearly 11 years leading Trinity, President Joanne Berger-Sweeney has worked to strengthen partnerships in the College’s home city, leading to the expansion of Trinity’s footprint into downtown Hartford and launching CHER to coordinate the work of five core community engagement programs. “The important work of the Urban Environmental Justice in Hartford project is exemplary of Trinity’s continued urban engagement,” Berger-Sweeney said. “Trinity is proud to be a community of thinkers and doers, driven by our passion to contribute to the public good.”

The Trinity team leading this work includes Garth A. Myers, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Urban International Studies and director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies; Abigail Fisher Williamson, associate professor of political science and public policy and law; and Amanda J. Guzmán, assistant professor of anthropology; with support from Eric A. Galm, professor of music; Erica M. Crowley, CHER’s senior director of academic programs; and Mary Mahoney ’09, digital scholarship strategist.

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Sonia Cardenas said, “This major grant underscores the vital role Trinity plays in addressing critical issues in our local community. The transboundary initiative, spearheaded by a campus collaboration, embodies Trinity’s spirit of community engagement and impactful research. It also showcases Trinity’s ability to lead transformative projects that connect the humanities to real-world challenges.”

Collectively, the Trinity team aims to encourage informed public dialogue on how historical land use decisions have imposed health and environmental consequences on Hartford’s predominantly Latine and Black residents and to build regional consensus to address challenges brought about by that history.

Trinity faculty and students will partner with CLJ/GHIAA, a regional organizing effort of more than 50 diverse faith communities, to give voice to Hartford residents’ environmental remediation priorities. Community-engaged learning courses will partner with CLJ/GHIAA participants to examine archival material, record oral history interviews, and conduct a PhotoVoice project on urban and suburban experiences of the environment. To promote empathy and build consensus, these materials will be disseminated back to the wider regional community through a series of pop-up exhibits, culminating in a six-month exhibit hosted by HBSC.

Throughout the project, HBSC will use its public dialogue expertise to host a series of team and public convenings to collaboratively produce, reflect on, and deepen regional understandings of environmental justice.

To conclude the project, the team will expand the reach of this work by disseminating products through a comprehensive project website and by seeding additional environmental justice courses and research projects at Trinity.

The funding provided for Trinity’s Urban Environmental Justice in Hartford project by the Mellon Foundation is to be used over 37 months, starting on December 1, 2024, and ending on December 31, 2027.

Working with colleges, universities, and other organizations that nurture advanced humanistic inquiry and social justice, Mellon makes grants through its Higher Learning program that broaden the understanding of American history and culture; develop the interpretive tools and methods scholars use to create meaning; support faculty and students whose work exemplifies a drive toward greater equity in their fields and institutions; and promote pathways for those seeking to exercise transformative academic leadership.