St. Thomas Aquinas College Professor Awarded Research Residency

(SPARKILL, NY— July 14, 2016)— Dr. Stacy Kinlock Sewell, assistant dean for the School of Arts & Sciences and professor of history at St. Thomas Aquinas College, was awarded a Larry J. Hackman Research Residency at the New York State Archives in Albany, NY, for 2016-2017. The Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Program is intended to support advanced work in New York State history, government, or public policy by defraying travel-related research expenses. It encourages public dissemination of research products. The program honors the New York State Archivist who managed the dramatic development of the State Archives between 1981 and 1995.

The grant will fund Dr. Sewell’s research in Albany for a project entitled 98 Acres in Albany: Documenting the Neighborhoods Lost to the South Mall. She is part of a team of three researchers documenting the history of the lost neighborhoods and displaced residents of Albany. Using a wide range of documents, including property photographs, inspection reports, management agreements with former owners negotiated by the State, and oral histories, they plan to chronicle the process of removal down to the block, building and household levels, as few other histories have before. The goal of the project is to produce a website that will digitally reconstruct the neighborhood and to publish a companion book of photo essays, documenting the demolition of 40 city blocks and the construction of the Empire State Plaza.

“The Hackman Research Residency will allow me to use the New York State records that address the construction phase of the renewal process. This research will examine the plans for the urban renewal for Albany and place it in the context both of neighborhood, state and local politics and of the construction boom and labor movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It will help document the politics, process, and progress of what then was the largest construction project in the world,” says Dr. Sewell.

More About Professor Sewell:

Sewell, a resident of Bronx, NY, graduated from Eugene Lang College of the New School for Social Research (NY), where she received a B.A. in history. She earned her Ph.D. in history with a specialization in African-American history and politics from Rutgers University (NJ). She joined the St. Thomas Aquinas College community in September 2000 as an associate professor of history and transitioned to professor in 20__. Some of Dr. Sewell’s published works include: “A ‘Fashionable’ End to Discrimination: The Development of Affirmative Action in the Kennedy-Johnson White House” in White House Studies; “The ‘Not-Buying’ Power of the Black Community: Equal Employment Opportunity in the Civil Rights Movement” in the Journal of African American History; and, “The Best Man for the Job: Corporate Responsibility and Racial Integration in the Workplace” in The Historian.

St. Thomas Aquinas College is an independent liberal arts college located on 60 acres in Rockland County, NY which provides education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The College’s 2,800 full and part time students can choose from more than 100 different majors, minors, specializations, and dual degree programs across three Schools: Arts & Sciences, Business, and Education. The College is recognized by U.S. News & World Report in the Top-Tier for Regional Universities, by Colleges of Distinction in both its New York and Catholic editions, by Affordable Colleges Online as a top College in New York for Return on Investment, and is included as a Military Friendly School®. St. Thomas Aquinas College is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools; its School of Education is accredited byNational Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education(NCATE); and its School of Business is accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE). For more information, visitwww.stac.edu.