Conn awarded $500K Mellon Foundation grant to explore housing issues in Connecticut
Connecticut College has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to build a platform for public research and dialogue around housing access and security that focuses a regional lens on the national housing crisis.
Just 30 awards were given as part of the nationwide Open Call for Concepts, launched by the Mellon Higher Learning Program in October 2023. The call invited four-year colleges and universities to submit concepts for research or curricular projects in one of three humanities-grounded and social justice-oriented categories: Cultures of U.S. Democracy, Environmental Justice Studies, and Social Justice and Disciplinary Knowledge. The call generated more than 470 submissions from 260 institutions.
The project, “A Right to Housing: Case Study Connecticut,” will be led by Associate Professor of Art History and Architectural Studies Anna Vallye, and is a collaboration between the College and the Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity Eastern Connecticut (CHEO), a pioneering joint initiative of The Housing Collective and the College focused on innovative solutions to protect and build affordable housing.
“In order to solve the housing challenges of today, as a community we must develop a deeper shared understanding about the history of housing and land use decision making in our region," said Beth Sabilia, director of CHEO. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Connecticut College and residents from across the region to unpack this history and foster meaningful dialogue around housing in the community.”
Funding will enable a three-year pilot program centered on the planning and presentation of a traveling exhibition, a digital publication, and curricular initiatives around community-engaged research and pedagogy.
“Housing access is an essential part of a thriving democracy, yet millions of Americans live under the pall of housing insecurity, which falls heaviest on marginalized communities,” Vallye said.
“Today, we live with the social and spatial disparities resulting from the historical dominance of market-based housing models. Our project situates that history in the local experience, excavating the buried legacy and promise of social housing, and highlighting viable alternatives, such as housing cooperatives and community land trusts.”
“A Right to Housing: Case Study Connecticut” builds on previous work, including a 2019-2021 student-faculty digital humanities research project conducted in partnership with New London Landmarks, “Mapping Urban Renewal in New London,” and the 2022 launch of CHEO.
“Bringing together a unique collaboration of scholars and students of the humanities, practitioners and advocates from the nonprofit arena and the community, we will provoke debate and inspire creative thinking on a future where housing is affordable for all,” Vallye said. “We will activate the power of the humanities to reshape the public imagination.”
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through grants, the Mellon Foundation seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.
