academics, people

Ann Plato Fellowship

The Ann Plato Fellowship is an annual fellowship given to a pre- or post-doctoral applicant to promote racial and ethnic diversity at Trinity College. Ann Plato fellows are expected to teach one or two courses at Trinity over the year and deliver a formal lecture during the Fall semester, receiving a stipend of $50,000 (pre-doctoral) or $55,000 (post-doctoral), plus health benefits. The fellows are also expected to engage in the Trinity community through regular interactions with colleagues and students. Trinity offers this fellowship to one applicant per year as a part of its membership in the Consortium for Faculty Diversity in Liberal Arts Colleges.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Minority Faculty Recruitment, formed in 1988 under President Jim English and fostered by his successor President Tom Gerety, established the Ann Plato Fellowship as their first project to increase the cultural diversity of Trinity’s faculty. Ann Plato (c.1824 - unknown) was a Black and Native American educator and author from Hartford. Her book, entitled Essays: Including Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Poetry (1841), was the first book of essays and poems to be published by a woman of color in the United States. The fellowship was named for her when Robert Stepto, an alumni and trustee of Trinity as well as a professor at Yale, offered to conduct research to find a suitable historical figure whose memory the fellowship would honor. He read about Plato’s experience as a free black teacher in the Hartford area, and discovered that the publication of Essays was sponsored by a prominent minister in the Colored Congregational Church, James W.C. Pennington, who wrote the preface to Plato’s book. Her work as an author and teacher inspired the Committee to name the fellowship in Plato's memory.

The first recipient of the Ann Plato Fellowship was Farah Griffin, who received her PhD in American Studies at Yale University and served as fellow in 1989-90. Since the fellowship’s inauguration, Ann Plato Fellows have specialized in a wide range of fields, including Art History, Literary Studies, Political Science, American Studies, Fine Arts, Environmental Science, Education, Mathematics, and Anthropology.