‘The Red Chador’: Trinity Exhibit Chronicles An Artist’s Walk Through Hartford
Hartford Courant
On Oct. 21 and 22, Anida Yoeu Ali took walks around Hartford and West Hartford. The Cambodian-American performance artist wore a sparkly red chador, the body-concealing garment Muslim women wear. She said nothing. When Ali is The Red Chador, she does not speak. Some onlookers were nice and inquisitive. Some did double takes and then walked away. Some whipped out cellphones to take pictures. … Ali was followed by a documentary crew, making photos and videos of her encounters. Some of those photos and videos are now on exhibit at Trinity College in Hartford, where Ali is a visiting professor of International Studies.

Study: More Americans reject religion, but believers firm in faith
USA Today
Americans as a whole are growing less religious, but those who still consider themselves to belong to a religion are, on average, just as committed to their faiths as they were in the past — in certain respects even more so. … These trends make sense, said Andrew Walsh, a historian of American religion at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., in that religious affiliation in America today is “increasingly shaped by individual choice and less by inheritance from a family or community.”

The Black Boycott Of Black Friday
The Daily Beast
The “Don’t Shop Where You Can’t Work” campaign of 1930 was a prototypical black economic protest, and one of the most famous efforts of the nature. Davarian L. Baldwin, history professor at Trinity College, says that the protest’s objective was “to counteract the overwhelming absence of black workers in retail stores, particularly in predominantly black neighborhoods.” And through campaigning and protest, it ultimately won about 2,000 jobs. … Although the impending Black Friday boycotts are national, Baldwin says they face a particular set of challenges. To overcome potential hurdles to achieve the desired outcome, Baldwin says, “they have to be, number one, selective, but also focused with a clear point of leverage.”

The Refugee Issue Is a Religious Liberty Issue
New Republic
Late last week, nonprofit and charitable organizations around Texas received a troubling letter from the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Dated November 19, the letter instructs all refugee-related agencies in the state of Texas to report any plans of resettling Syrian refugees to the commission, and asks that if they are in the process of resettling Syrian refugees, to “please discontinue those plans immediately.” … “Efforts to restrict the ability of such charities/non-profits could certainly be interpreted [as a limitation of religious freedom],” Mark Silk, director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College, wrote in an email to the New Republic.

Leavenworth’s Federal Penitentiary Was Once Known As A ‘University Of Radicalism’
KCUR 89.3 [Kansas City, Mo. public radio]
There’s a federal surveillance file from the early 20th century that refers to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas during World War I as a “University of Radicalism.” “That’s not hyperbole,” said researcher Christina Heatherton of Trinity College in Connecticut during a conversation on Central Standard. Heatherton was writing a book on the Mexican Revolution. As she pored over correspondence among the organizers who instigated the revolution, letter after letter referred to radical heavyweights incarcerated in Leavenworth. With all roads leading back to Leavenworth, Heatherton finally came to Kansas to conduct in-depth archival research, to figure out what was going on within those prison walls.

Connecticut Manufacturers Look To Inner City Youth To Fill Jobs
CT Latino News.com
With the median age of their labor force already topping 50, Connecticut manufacturers are finding that their existing workforce development strategies are not only insufficient to meet their current needs and but without a larger pool of trained workers their expansion plans might be stymied. One place manufacturers are beginning to look to replenish their aging and retiring workforce is the state’s inner city schools, an emerging trend that could bode well for the state’s growing Latino population… Robert Cotto Jr., the director of urban educational initiatives at Trinity College, said, “School can definitely be a place where young people learn about careers and how to prepare for them.”

China a Common Thread in Conversations About Policy, Economy, Environment
“Where We Live” – WNPR [Hartford, Conn. public radio]
This hour, we hear three stories that all converge around the topic of China. Our first story is very much about the policy that defined China’s attempt to limit its population and spur its economic growth: the so-called “one child” policy that has just recently been changed. Our second story takes us to Nicaragua, where a Chinese plan to build a new shipping canal holds economic promise for the Central American country — but could also contain environmental peril. Finally, an Iranian businessman recently came to Hartford to tell his story of working with China to fully bring the country into the world economy. GUESTS: Xiangming Chen – Dean and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies at Trinity College; Ren Yuan – Professor of Demography and Urban Studies at Fudan University in China; Katherine Hoyt – National co-coordinator of the Alliance for Global Justice and its Nicaragua Network program; Dr. Farzam Kamalabadi – Founder and Chairman of Future Trends International in China