Jack Dougherty is Professor and Director of the Educational Studies Program at Trinity College. He and his students use tools from digital history, data visualization, and web writing to explore the relationship between cities, suburbs, and schools in metropolitan Hartford, Connecticut. Jack received his B.A. in philosophy from Swarthmore College, taught high school social studies in Newark, New Jersey, then earned his Ph.D. in educational policy studies, with a minor in U.S. history, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At Trinity, he co-created the Liberal Arts Action Lab while serving as its first Faculty Director (2017-2020), and also led the team that launched the Center for Hartford Engagement and Research (CHER) while serving as its first Director (2018-2020).

Learn more about his teaching, scholarship, and community engagement at https://jackdougherty.org.

Teaching:

• Educ 200: Analyzing Schools, an introductory course where students compare and contrast theories on learning and inequality as they gain first-hand experience through participant-observation in Hartford public school classrooms.

• Educ 300: Education Reform, Past & Present, a mid-level survey course where students develop research and writing skills while exploring parallels between historical and contemporary movements to change society through schooling.

• Educ 308 Cities, Suburbs, and Schools, a research seminar where students have investigated and published works on housing inequality, racial integration, and public school choice.

• Educ 400: Senior Research Seminar, a capstone experience where all majors design, conduct, and present their study using qualitative, quantitative, and/or historical methods.

• Data Visualization For All, a course for undergraduate students and Hartford community partners to collaborate on creating interactive charts and maps for the web, and also a free online course for learners around the globe.

Scholarship:

• On the Line: How Schooling, Housing, and Civil Rights Shaped Hartford and its Suburbs, an open-access book-in-progress with student contributors, under contract with Amherst College Press.

• Hands-On Data Visualization: Interactive Storytelling from Spreadsheets to Code, an open-access book co-authored with Ilya Ilyankou (O'Reilly Media, 2021).

• Web Writing: Why & How for Liberal Arts Teaching & Learning, an open-access book co-edited with Tennyson O'Donnell (University of Michigan Press, 2015).

• Writing History in the Digital Age , an open-access book co-edited with Kristen Nawrotzki (University of Michigan Press 2013).

• More Than One Struggle: The Evolution of Black School Reform in Milwaukee (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).

Community Engagement:

Jack served as the first Director of the Center for Hartford Engagement and Research (CHER) from 2018-2020, and also served as the first Faculty Director of the Liberal Arts Action Lab from 2017-2020.

• Writing History in the Digital Age (co-edited with Kristen Nawrotzki). University of Michigan Press, forthcoming 2013, http://WritingHistory.trincoll.edu.
• "Investigating Spatial Inequality with the Cities, Suburbs, and Schools Project." In Confronting Urban Legacy, edited by X. Chen and N. Bacon, Lexington Books, forthcoming 2013.
• "School Information, Parental Decisions, and the Digital Divide: The SmartChoices Project in Hartford, Connecticut" (with Diane Zannoni, Maham Chowhan '10, Courteney Coyne '10, Benjamin Dawson '11, Tehani Guruge '11, and Begaeta Nukic '11). In Making School Choice Work For All, by Gary Orfield and Erica Frankenberg. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.
• “Who Owns Oral History? A Creative Commons Solution” (with Candace Simpson '12). In Oral History in the Digital Age, edited by Doug Boyd et al., Institute of Library and Museum Services, 2012. http://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/2012/06/a-creative-commons-solution/.
• “Shopping for Schools: How Public Education and Private Housing Shaped Suburban Connecticut.” Journal of Urban History 38 (March 2012): 205-224, http://juh.sagepub.com/content/38/2.
• “School Choice in Suburbia: Test Scores, Race, and Housing Markets” (with Jeffrey Harrelson ’07, Laura Maloney ’07, Drew Murphy ’07, Russell Smith ’07, Michael Snow ‘07, and Diane Zannoni). American Journal of Education 115 (August 2009): 523-548, http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cssp_papers/1.
• "Sheff v O’Neill: Weak Desegregation Remedies and Strong Disincentives in Connecticut, 1996-2008” (with Jesse Wanzer ’08 and Christina Ramsay ’09). In From the Courtroom to the Classroom: The Shifting Landscape of School Desegregation, edited by Claire Smrekar and Ellen Goldring, 103-127. Harvard Education Press, 2009, http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cssp_papers/3/.
• More Than One Struggle: The Evolution of Black School Reform in Milwaukee. University of North Carolina Press, 2004, http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-4956.html.

• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at Digital Humanities Center (with MAGIC, the Map and Geographic Information Center at the University of Connecticut-Storrs), 2010-11.
• History of Education Society Outstanding Book Award for 2005.
• Gambrinus Prize (for best book on Milwaukee history), Milwaukee County Historical Society.
  
• National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship for
  "Cities, Suburbs, and Schools" research project, 2002-03.