Center for Urban and Global Studies
The Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS) is the first center of its kind at a top liberal arts college in the United States, and it offers curricular opportunities and research programs where students and faculty work together to better understand our new global society. Since its founding in 1823, Trinity has offered an excellent classical liberal arts education to generations of students in its historic classroom buildings, with relatively little engagement with the outside world. In recent decades the College has worked more closely with its neighbors in the city of Hartford, to the benefit of both.
As the world beyond Trinity rapidly becomes more urbanized and globalized, the College’s concept of a traditional liberal arts education has been challenged to encompass a more urban-global view. To realize Trinity’s new vision, the College created CUGS. Taking advantage of Trinity’s location, CUGS strengthens the long-standing relationship between the College and Hartford, and the wider world.
The Center for Urban and Global Studies plays a critical role in advancing Trinity’s urban and global education on campus, in Hartford, and across the world. The Center serves as a driver, facilitator, convener, and hub for collaborative curricular initiatives, research projects, and engagement activities that enhance student learning and strengthen our connections and support to Hartford communities while broadening and elevating our global presence and academic reputation.
By effectively combining academic study and civic engagement in diverse local, national, and global settings, CUGS enhances Trinity’s distinct position and reputation as a leading urban liberal arts college with a wide global reach.
Cities Program
An integral part of the Center for Urban and Global Studies, the Cities Program is one of Trinity’s four Gateway programs for a small number of selective first-year students to learn and understand all aspects of cities through a cluster of interdisciplinary courses and experiential curricular activities. The Cities Program lays the academic foundation for the students who complete it in three semesters to expand and deepen their interest in urban issues through continued course study on campus, research and engagement in Hartford, and Trinity’s study-away programs in international cities.
The program views cities from a broad range of perspectives in the humanities and social sciences, drawing on insights from history, architectural history, literary and cultural studies, anthropology, economics, environmental science, geography, politics, sociology, and urban planning, among other fields. It balances a strong emphasis on older cities in the United States and Europe with a timely attention to rapid urbanization elsewhere, especially the explosive growth of megacities (e.g., Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai) in the developing world.
Community Learning Initiative
Trinity has a long-standing commitment to community learning and serves as a model for other colleges and universities. Our community learning program involves almost all of our academic departments, more than 200 community organizations over the past several years, and about half of our students. These students overwhelmingly report that participation in community learning increases both their understanding of course material and their awareness of needs in the community. It’s a natural way to connect with people you might not meet otherwise, develop a sense of civic responsibility, and gain the satisfaction of having a hand in creating solutions.
Urban Studies Major and Minor
The Urban Studies program provides a broadly interdisciplinary understanding of how urban dynamics shape both global interdependence and local spaces. It emphasizes how cities are increasingly critical to the organization of economic, social, and cultural activities that shape and transform human experience. The Urban Studies program provides academic strengthening of Trinity’s strong links with Hartford as a distinctive asset, and it is a critical supporting mechanism for the College’s urban-global mission and urban-global curricular emphasis.
International Studies Major
The International Studies (INTS) Program houses six interdisciplinary majors: five “area studies” majors, which focus on a single world region, broadly and flexibly defined (African Studies; Asian Studies; Caribbean and Latin American Studies;Middle East Studies; and Russian and Eurasian Studies ), and the Global Studies major, which approaches global interrelations from a comparative, disciplinary, or thematic perspective.
Study Away
Trinity College is distinguished by a proud tradition of offering students best-in-class study away programs at urban and global locations both domestically and around the world. Over 60 percent of Trinity College students take advantage of a study away opportunity prior to graduation, many more than once. The College is also distinguished among its peers by the 9 Trinity-administered study away programs that have been developed by Trinity College faculty and have strong ties to the curriculum on campus in Hartford. Trinity Study Away programs offer internships, independent studies, direct enrollment options at local universities and much more.
Internships
Once you’ve explored your options, chosen your major, and decided on a direction, it will be time to get down to the business of actually finding an internship or job. Throughout this process, we’ll be here to support you. As a Bantam, the best place to start your job hunt is online. Our database is filled with academic internships, non-academic internships, and full-time jobs. Plus, the employers who post to this platform are specifically looking for Trinity students — so when you apply for a job listed here, you’ll have a distinct advantage in the market.
You can also search for jobs and internships using our Liberal Arts Career NetWORK. This gives Trinity students and alumni access to a database with over 3,000 active internships and jobs and over 14,000 registered employers.
Service and Volunteer Opportunities
Trinity’s Office of Community Service and Civic Engagement provides students with opportunities to get involved with a wide variety of different organizations. Whether you’re interested in working with local school children, joining an advocacy group, or participating in a city beautification project, we have relationships with many organizations throughout Hartford who are looking for someone like you.