Keller experts on hand at symposium on innovation in higher education

Executive director Cornelia Huellstrunk, incoming visiting lecturer Keith Hollingsworth, and Digital Media and Communications Manager Greg Duncan recently presented at the The 11th Annual Deshpande Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education in Cleveland, Ohio.

The trio brought innovative insights and valued expertise to the annual gathering focused on accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship within higher education institutions. 

Hollingsworth was a panelist for the session Accounting for the History of Black Entrepreneurship in the Curriculum. Pointing to the need for education about the history of systemic racism for all students, Hollingsworth said, “Someone in 1962 just following the rules didn’t necessarily know that 98% of Federal Housing Administration mortgages from 1933 to 1962 went to white people.” 

Hollingsworth is a faculty member at Morehouse College, a historically Black institution, and will teach his course Black Entrepreneurial History in the United States at Princeton in the fall. “I look forward to bringing this education to Princeton students where the reach will go beyond Black people,” said Hollingsworth.

In a session titled Solving the Wicked Problem of Structural Racism Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education, executive director Cornelia Huellstrunk and digital media and communications manager Greg Duncan presented a case study of the Center’s Program in Institutional and Historical Racism in Engineering, Technology, and Innovation. 

They made the case that “trying to tackle any innovation or societal issue without understanding the impact of historical and structural racism is like trying to fathom the universe without knowing about carbon.” 

The program will begin accepting applications for the 2022-2023 cohort in the coming weeks. Interested faculty, postdocs, and staff in the School of Engineering can sign up to be notified when the application period opens.