Reimagining St. Paul’s College
Title of Project: Reimagining St. Paul’s College
Project Period (Duration): November 2022 – Current
Principal Investigator (PI): Chris Stephenson, President, St. Paul’s College 4 Life (SPC4Life)
Co-Investigators:
- Dr. Max Stephenson, Jr., Director, Institute for Policy and Governance (IPG) and Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA)
- Bob Leonard, Professor, School of Performing Arts (SOPA) and IPG Senior Fellow
- Andy Morikawa, IPG Senior Fellow
- Brad Stephens, IPG Graduate Assistant and PhD Student in Planning, Governing, and Globalization (PGG)
- Dr. Scott Tate, Associate Director for Community Innovations, Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE)
Funding Source(s): Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE), SPC4Life
Key Community Partners: SPC4Life
Key University Partners: SPIA, SOPA, School of Visual Arts (SOVA), Pamplin College of Business, Center for Rural Education, Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE)
Description of Project:
An interdisciplinary team of Virginia Tech partners is working with the alumni of St. Paul’s College (SPC) in Lawrenceville, VA to re-envision the role of this historically Black college and university (HBCU) that closed in 2013. The group has been working with SPC alumnus Chris Stephenson to support SPC4Life’s strategic planning process and facilitate.
Project Goals:
- Provide guidance to SPC4Life board leadership
- Research and discuss recommendations to launch new educational ventures
- Consider how media production and outreach can help SPC4Life support its goals
Project Outcomes to Date:
- Event support and facilitation to build energy for galvanizing alumni efforts
- An academic journal article on the Black Radical Imagination in this context (forthcoming): “The Black Radical Imagination in a Rural Forgotten Space,” MetroPolitics, Accepted October 30, 2023. Brad Stephens, Max Stephenson Jr., Chris Stephenson.
Project Materials:
- Deffenbaugh, D. (2023, July 20). Collaboration with Southside community is reimagining a historically Black college. Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. https://liberalarts.vt.edu/news/articles/2023/07/liberalarts-collaboration-with-southside-community.html
- SPC4LIFE UNITY DAY 2023. (2023, August 26). K3 Marketing and Media Group, LLC. https://k3mmg.pixieset.com/spc4lifeunityday2023/
- Stephens, B. (2023, April 17). Reimagining a Black Geography in Southside Virginia. Community Change Collaborative. https://ccc.ipg.vt.edu/NewsandEvents/LatestNews/reimagining-a-black-geography-in-southside-virginia.html