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The Daily Hub

A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute

  • Sofi Thanhauser, adjunct associate professor – CCE, was awarded a 2025 Whiting Award for Nonfiction. The Whiting Committee wrote that Thanhauser displays a “uniquely elegant intelligence…[Her] curiosity is a gift to the reader; her sentences are as layered as her investigations, which look with a devoted intensity at the objects around us that might otherwise escape our attention.”

  • Victoria Forbes, BFA Art and Design Education ’24, has been granted the honor of being the Graduate Speaker for Pratt’s class of 2025 Commencement. She will be acknowledged for this achievement at the Student Affairs Leadership Awards.

  • Graciela Carrillo, MS Urban Environmental Systems Management ’07, has been elevated to the prestigious College of Fellows by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This honor recognizes their exceptional contributions to architecture and society. The AIA Fellowship is awarded to architects who have achieved the highest standards of excellence in the profession. 

  • Rodney Leon, BArch ’92, reflected on the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of the Ark of Return, a permanent memorial designed by Leon that honors the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade at the United Nations. “The memorialization of public space allows often complex and contradictory needs to coexist simultaneously. It must provide space for individual reflection and contemplation of often tragic histories, and at the same time provide a place for collective gathering and celebration.”

  • A new short documentary about Edel Rodriguez, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’94, is featured in PRINT magazine. Freedom is a Verb, by filmmakers Mecky Creus and Adrienne Hall, “focuses on Rodriguez’s bestselling visual memoir of young life in—and treacherous escape from—Castro’s Cuba.”

  • Nia Starr, MS Sustainable Environmental Systems ’24, turned their graduate thesis on equitable electrification into a real-world project for Diversity Coalition SLO County.

More Pratt Institute News

Pratt and a Century of The New Yorker 

On the occasion of the magazine's 100th anniversary, a look back at the many Pratt artists, writers, and creatives who have helped shape the renowned publication.
A montage of 3 black-and-white headshots. L-R: Annabelle Selldorf, Claudia Rankine, and Stefan Sagmeister

Commencement 2025 to Be Held on May 20 at Radio City Music Hall 

From Pratt Institute News

Poet and cultural critic Claudia Rankine will deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree, and distinguished alumni Annabelle Selldorf and Stefan Sagmeister will receive honorary degrees.
A group of students listens attentively during an outdoor tour at the Naval Cemetery Landscape. A woman in a black hat gestures while speaking, holding a plant reference guide, as others look on surrounded by tall grasses and bare trees in the background.

Sowing Seeds of Sustainability

From Pratt Institute News

Pratt Earth Action Week Spring 2025 featured walking tours, sustainability workshops and exhibitions, and world-building exercises.