A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute
Isabel (Izzy) Lane, MS Urban and Community Planning ’26, is the 2025 Pratt School of Architecture William ‘Bill’ Menking Travel Award recipient. “In this moment of excitement and traction for urban agriculture at scale, I hope that my travels allow me to share with the Pratt community a critical analysis of the opportunities and risks of planning for urban agriculture through the frameworks of social, racial, and environmental justice,” Lane wrote in her application for the prize.
The Pratt Center for Community Development report Better Buses for Flatbush Avenue: Participatory Action Research with Riders Alliance was cited in an article in Amsterdam News on the need for faster buses in Flatbush. “In each neighborhood that Flatbush Avenue passes through, it’s a commercial corridor [and] a center of neighborhoods,” Sylvia Morse, senior program manager for research and policy at the Pratt Center, told Amsterdam News. “It’s not just like an artery that passes through. It doesn’t function like a highway. It’s a really complicated street.”
Dean of the School of Information Anthony Cocciolo published the chapter “Alice Roberts and the Breakdown of Segregation in Northern Library Schools, 1890–1940” in The Legacy of Black Women in Librarianship: When They Dared to Be Powerful (ALA Neal Schuman) edited by Nicole Cooke.
Professor in the School of Information Irene Lopatovska co-authored a new journal article with alumni Grace Pickering, MSLIS ’24, and Celia Coan, MSLIS ’24, titled “Ukrainian public libraries during the Russia-Ukraine war: Supporting individuals, communities, and the nation” in the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.
Nick Brenner, MSLIS ’26, presented his paper “New Trends in Ottoman Transcription Software: Interventions for Librarian” at the 18th AATT (American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages) Graduate Student Conference. The paper was developed in INFO-601 Foundations of Information.
Pratt Trustee and alumnus Derrick Adams, BFA Art and Design Education ’96, curated the inaugural Scout Art Fair, featured on WBAL news radio and in Observer.
Professor in the School of Information Leanne Bowler presented “Transdisciplinary Epistemic Practices as a Teaching Narrative: Redesigning a LIS course that integrates STEM, Arts, and Design” at Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) 2025 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Jack McKernan, Lauren Holmes, and Cleo de Lasa, all MSLIS ’26, will present their paper, “The Revolution, In Boxes,” at the Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) 2025 conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, May 19–21, 2025. They also received funding from the Graduate Student Engagement Fund to attend. The paper was written for INFO 601 Foundations of Information taught by Professor Irene Lopatovska.
Haijing Gu, BID ’26, and Mingzhi Chen, MID ’25, won Silver in the Muse Design Awards in the product design student category.
Students from Assistant Professor of Associate Degrees Deb Caponera’s Pre-Press & Print-Production class presented their work to the public at the opening reception for Posters for a Cause: Shaping Our Future Together at Betty Bakery in Brooklyn. The students spoke about the causes and organizations for which they wanted to raise awareness and funding. Students’ posters will be on display throughout the month of May.
From Pratt Institute News
From Pratt Institute News
