Peter Salovey President | Yale University
Peter Salovey President | Yale University
Every year, Yale faculty and students focus on various aspects of New Haven, examining critical social questions related to the health of the city and its community. Questions such as the public health implications of evictions among renters, areas subjected to high summertime heat stress, and ways to improve residents' access to energy efficiency retrofits are among those studied.
However, these findings have never been cataloged in one place, making them less accessible to city residents and other researchers. This is now changing with the unveiling of the New Haven People and the Environment Research Library (PERL) by the Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ). PERL is a searchable digital library housing research at the intersection of people and the environment in New Haven. YCEJ is a joint effort between the Yale School of the Environment and Yale Law School, in partnership with Yale’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration.
“I have had many students over the years write terrific essays about New Haven’s environmental history,” said Paul Sabin, Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, faculty director of Yale Environmental Humanities, and a member of PERL’s advisory committee. “I would be thrilled if these could be more accessible to others who want to learn about the city’s transportation history, food systems, and other topics.”
The project began two years ago from discussions between YCEJ staff and clinical faculty at the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health. Kristin Barendregt-Ludwig, YCEJ’s program manager, stated that they saw it as a justice issue aimed at expanding access to research done in New Haven.
In 2021 YCEJ received a Yale Planetary Solutions seed grant for this project. They formed an advisory committee and consulted local stakeholders including five community consultants from across New Haven. Last year they partnered with EliScholar to create a pilot website which currently hosts around 200 studies and reports.
The library focuses exclusively on studies exploring interactions between people and their environment but covers diverse topics beyond green spaces including housing, energy, transportation, public safety, gentrification, food security, pollution effects on public health among others.
The database is not limited to work conducted by researchers affiliated with Yale; it includes partnerships with other institutions like University of Connecticut Southern Connecticut State University Albertus Magnus College Quinnipiac University DataHaven etc., encouraging them to submit their research reports.
“New Haven is a much-studied town,” Sabin noted. “My hope is that PERL will help build useful knowledge contributing towards improving the city while avoiding duplication imposing burdens wasting resources.”
PERL aims at multiple audiences: enabling researchers sharing work within New Haven community fostering collaborations identifying existing partnerships supporting cases informing grant proposals etc.,
It serves as a living resource allowing submissions from academics college students community organizations government entities citizen scientists even high school students backed by teachers ensuring comprehensive visibility highlighting gaps over time supported by Rosenkranz Award through Poorvu Center maintaining promoting building pilot website
Learn more about PERL at upcoming Yale Community Breakfast Thursday Sept 5 Dixwell-Yale Community Learning Center sponsored by Office New Haven Affairs
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