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Our Work
Since 2023, NERLab has been working alongside local residents, guided by a central question: What are neighborly principles and practices for higher education community engagement, as defined by residents themselves?
Through research interviews and participation in community meetings and events, we’ve sought to understand resident-defined values and priorities. In response to what we’ve learned, we’re supporting community-driven initiatives and working to reimagine what it means for campuses to engage with their neighbors — as neighbors.
Recent collaborative projects and initiatives — ranging from community-driven efforts to academic presentations and publications — include:
New Publication
Shifting the Paradigm: Neighborliness as a Community-Identified Framework for Community-Campus Relations
By Carmine Perrotti with the NERLab
This inaugural report from the NERLab explores what it means for institutions of higher education to act as good neighbors, grounded in the perspectives of Providence residents. It introduces a community-identified framework of Principles and Practices for Neighborly Engagement, designed to help institutions reflect on and strengthen more equitable, reciprocal community-campus relationships.
Recent Presentations
NERLab has shared its work in a range of local and national settings:
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April 2026: NERLab participated in Providence College’s 17th Annual Celebration of Student Scholarship and Creativity.
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March 2026: NERLab was invited to share our work with the Providence College President's Council. The Council is group of alumni and local business and civic leaders who advise the College president.
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March 2026: NERLab facilitated three interactive presentations at Campus Compact’s Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.
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March 2026: NERLab was one of five research projects selected to represent Providence College at the Big East Undergraduate Research Symposium in New York, NY.
Summer 2025 Research:
Portraits of a Neighborhood
NERLab Research Assistant Riley Londraville received a Summer Undergraduate Research and Creative Grant from Providence College’s Center for Engaged Learning for her project, Exploring Community Narratives Through Portraiture. Building on interviews conducted through NERLab, this project features narrative “portraits” of local residents and will be published on the NERLab blog launching this fall.
Portraiture is a qualitative research method that combines inquiry and storytelling to create narrative-rich profiles that emphasize lived experience and community strengths — offering an alternative to traditional data presentation.
Community Archive Exhibit
Beyond the PC Bubble: Exploring Community & Place through Archival Research
(2025, April-August)
This student-curated exhibit was developed through an interdisciplinary course, Smith Hill: A Study in Community and Place through Archival Research, offered by Dr. Carmine Perrotti through the Departments of Public and Community Service Studies, Global Studies, and American Studies at Providence College.
In collaboration with the Archives and Special Collections at Phillips Memorial Library, the course drew on the newly acquired Smith Hill Community Development Corporation (CDC) Collection to examine more than three decades of affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization. The exhibit highlighted the history and impact of the Smith Hill CDC and its long-standing partnership with Providence College, offering a window into the stories, people, and places that have shaped the Smith Hill community. While the physical exhibit has concluded, key highlights remain accessible online.