Faculty Forum with LaDale Winling
In this episode, LaDale Winling discusses his work collecting stories of systemic injustices, such as redlining, and gives a history of how redlining first occurred through the nationalization of mortgage lending. He also talks about how he views public history and how it might be important with the goal of producing better and more just communities.
LaDale Winling is an associate professor of history and core member of the public history program at Virginia Tech. His research and teaching explore urban and political history in the United States, especially how space, architecture, and geography shape politics, economic life, and daily experience. His book, Building the Ivory Tower, examined the role of American universities as real estate developers in the twentieth century. Professor Winling uses spatial data tools in both his print and digital work over the web. With collaborators, in 2016 he launched Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America, on the work of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation to map and grade the credit worthiness of neighborhoods in cities across America. In 2018, he launched Electing the House of Representatives, 1840-2016, on Congressional elections. This work has been featured in The Atlantic, the New York Times, on National Public Radio, and other media outlets.