Decades of toxic industrialism have left a deep mark in South Baltimore, making it one of the most polluted zip codes in the nation and affecting generations in the multiracial, working-class community. Chloe Ahmann, assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is helping local organizers in their quest for environmental justice — and bringing her students along. For this work, Ahmann was named recipient of this year’s Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship.

Chloe Ahmann

“It’s an incredible honor to learn that the Kaplan committee believes in this work, and a gift to be able to bring real resources to the table as we collaborate with organizers,” said Ahmann.

Established in 2001, the Kaplan Fellowship is awarded annually to honor a member of the Cornell faculty who facilitates a transformative experience for Cornell students in a community-engaged learning context.

This year, the fellowship’s $10,000 award supports a cross-institutional course newly developed for the fall 2025 semester. Ahmann, also a faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and an incoming fellow with the Milstein Program in Technology and Society, will teach “Environmental Justice Studio” in partnership with Anand Pandian, professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“This work builds on my and Pandian’s public-facing writing on these themes and comes at the direct request of comrades from the South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT)” said Ahmann, who has been working in the community for 15 years — first as an elementary school teacher and then as a researcher. She recently published a book based on this work, called Futures after Progress: Hope and Doubt in Late Industrial Baltimore (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

The course will pair students from both universities with Baltimore-based environmental justice activists, to conduct archival and ethnographic research. Their collaborative work is intended to substantiate the local nonprofit’s Title VI civil rights complaint against the City of Baltimore. For decades, inequitable siting of waste infrastructures has disproportionately impacted the health of Black, Brown and working-class residents and led to the displacement of several South Baltimore communities. The complaint calls on city officials to acknowledge this discriminatory legacy and take action by investing in community-led zero waste infrastructure.

With help from a multimedia production specialist and in partnership with community members, four cross-institutional teams will produce a digital educational series — including videos, writing, infographics and discussion questions — to provide residents, organizers, regulators and elected officials with a deeper understanding of the systemic racism that has shaped waste management policy in Baltimore. Students will present their work to key stakeholders during a launch at the beginning of next year — an event that Ahmann hopes will take place on site in Baltimore.

Ahmann is aiming to offer students opportunities to support the South Baltimore Community Land Trust with active campaigns beyond this year. “This project grows out of deep relationships forged over more than a decade now, and our hope is to sustain these partnerships for many more,” she said. “We would like our fall 2025 course to be the first of many iterations of the Environmental Justice Studio.”

Her community partners agree. “The course represents a critical intervention in the ongoing struggle for environmental justice in Baltimore,” said organizers with SBCLT. “Historically, we have been able to translate co-equal research and education initiatives like this into some of our biggest breakthroughs. We hope to see future student cohorts continuing to contribute research and public education materials to support other urgent struggles in our city and believe this partnership holds the potential to become a long-term, institutionalized support system for our grassroots efforts. We see this as just the beginning.”