Claire Dunning

Claire Dunning is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is an affiliated faculty member in the Do Good Institute and the History Department. 
 
Dunning is a historian of the United States in the 20th century, focusing on the histories of poverty, inequality, governance, and nonprofit organizations in American cities. Her work has been published in the Journal of Urban History, Enterprise & Society, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, as well as the Washington Post. She is the author of Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An Urban History of Inequality and the American State (University of Chicago Press, 2022). The book analyzes efforts by policymakers, philanthropists, grassroots activists, and nonprofit executives to reduce poverty in American cities, and considers the local consequences of pursuing a public good through private organizations. Her next book project centers on philanthropic support for fair housing after 1968. Dunning holds a PhD in history from Harvard University and an AB in history and public policy from Dartmouth College. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and previously worked at a community foundation.

New publication: Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An Urban History of Inequality and the American State (University of Chicago Press, 2022).