Columbia University’s Office of the Provost announced the recipients of a new seed grant funding initiative, “Addressing Racism: A Call to Action,” to support faculty in engaging with issues of structural racism. The goal of this initiative is to provide resources to enable collaborative dialogue, action, and insight for systemic change towards racial equity. The initiative supports 36 individual-unit projects and 21 cross-unit collaborations across the university.

Patrice Derrington, Associate Professor and MSRED Program Director; Diane Branch ‘03 MSRED; and Ed Poteat, Adjunct Professor in Real Estate Development, received a seed grant for their individual-unit project: Building an Anti-racist and Equitable Context for Black Students in Columbia’s M.Sc. Real Estate Development Program.

GSAPP Faculty included among cross-unit collaborations include Erica Avrami, James Marston Fitch Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation; Jorge Otero-Pailos, Professor and Historic Preservation Program Director; and Thaddeus Pawlowski, Adjunct Associate Professor in Urban Design and Urban Planning. Their funded proposals and collaborators include:

• Rethinking Archaeological Pedagogy at Columbia and in the Field More Widely
  Zoë Crossland, Brian Boyd, Hannah Chazin, Terence D'Altroy, Severin Fowles, Anthropology; Francesco de Angelis, Lisa Trever, Art History and Archaeology; Marc Van de Mieroop, Lakshmi Ramgopal, History; Ellen Morris, Classics; Steven L. Goldstein, Sidney Hemming, Dorothy Peteet, Earth and Environmental Sciences; Jue Guo, East Asian Languages and Cultures; Erica Avrami and Jorge Otero Pailos, GSAPP

• Integrating Racial Equity and Climate Justice into Urban Planning and Design: A Workshop for the 4th Assessment of the New York Panel on Climate Change and Affiliated CU Faculty, GSAPP Faculty, and Local Stakeholders
  Thaddeus Pawlowski, GSAPP; Christian Braneon, Jackie Klopp, Earth Institute

Learn more about the Addressing Racism: A Call to Action for Higher Education initiative of the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement here.