Aaron Trent is a research manager at Slover Linett Strategies, where he conducts ethnographic, qualitative, and quantitative research in the arts, informal learning, and higher education.
Aaron has managed studies for the Chicago consortium Museums in the Park, the Louisiana Children's Museum, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian, among other clients. In November, 2011, Aaron presented findings from an innovative ethnographic study on young-adult cultural consumers at the National Arts Marketing Project conference in Louisville.
Aaron worked with Slover Linett on a freelance basis before joining the firm full-time in August of 2010. As a freelancer, he collected audience data at various cultural institutions, analyzed data, and developed reports. He honed his analytical skills during a summer internship with the firm in 2009.
Aaron earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa during his junior year. In the winter of 2009, he traveled to South Africa to complete a program in comparative African studies and later wrote a B.A. thesis on the history of passports and identity documents in South Africa.
In May of 2010, Aaron presented research from his B.A. thesis at the annual Michicagoan Graduate Student Conference in Linguistic Anthropology, which is jointly sponsored by the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan.
Aaron is actively engaged in the Chicago nonprofit community. Prior to joining the firm, he worked with an organization that provides legal services and education for undocumented families. He is also a classical singer and has performed with choirs around Chicago and at the University of Chicago.
He plans to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology in the future.
