House History and Placemaking

Winthrop House is a home to all who live here. Placemaking is an ongoing collaborative process to ensure that each of us feels that they belong and can be proud of our House, even with full knowledge of its history. It is an active process of making this place your home, and of both telling and learning of the stories of our community. We ensure there are opportunities to learn about the complex history of our House—including our name—and to place that history within the broader context of our community's story, of our stories.

History lingers and must be directly confronted if we are to create a more just, equitable, and fully welcoming community in which every member can thrive and contribute to the University’s mission of research, teaching, and service.

Committee to Articulate Principles on Renaming

The initiative on House history and placemaking is an opportunity to reflect not only on our past, but also our present and our future. It is an ongoing process, as is our commitment to ensuring that all residents know and feel that they belong in Winthrop House.

This page gives information about our House history and placemaking process, and opportunities to get involved.

Guiding Principles

We have four Guiding Principles to orient our House history and placemaking efforts.

  • Belonging: Strive for the process and the outcomes to help everyone in our community feel at home and comfortable in our House.
  • Learning: Give our community an opportunity to learn about many aspects of our House's history, with a sincere effort towards intellectual honesty and rigor, complexities and all.
  • Stewardship: Approach contextualization and placemaking with a mindset of reflecting and learning from history, rather than erasing it. All of us have an active part to play in being ethical stewards of the histories and stories of this House.
  • Community: Focus on engaging with the Winthrop community throughout the process, but with opportunities for the broader community to participate.

Leadership team

The House History and Placemaking (HAP) Leadership Team consists primarily of Winthrop House staff and students. We periodically invite current Winthrop students to apply to join the team; look out for emails and/or reach out to any of the HAP leadership team for more information.

Current Members:

  • Matthew Tobin '27
  • Manan Kapoor (Resident Tutor)
  • Moses Murdock (Resident Tutor)
  • Paulo Carvao (Scholar-in-Residence)
  • Brenda Tindal (FAS Chief Campus Curator)
  • Kiran Gajwani (Faculty Dean)
  • Stephen Chong (Faculty Dean)

Past Members:

  • Ishan Tiwari '25
  • Mamfatou Baldeh (Resident Tutor)
  • Michael Rain (Scholar-in-Residence)

Selected Activities

  • AY 2024-25: Inaugural House History Fellows!
  • Nov 3-7, 2025: House History Week, applications for student members of Winthrop House Hisotry and Placemaking Leadership Team
  • Nov-Dec, 2025: Preview and Installation of Exhibit on Denaming Process and Outcome at Community Dinner
  • Mar 12, 2026: Plaque Ceremony
    • Ceremony to show the new plaque at the entrance to Kaneb Courtyard, replacing the "John Winthrop House" plaque with a new "Winthrop House" plaque. 
  • Summer 2026: captions placed on many of the portraits in Winthrop House