HARTFORD, Conn., April 30, --Dr. Xiangming Chen has been named as Trinity’s first Dean and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies and the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor in Sociology and International Studies. Dr. Chen is Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with courtesy appointments there in Political Science and Urban Planning and Policy and at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Author, educator and international scholar, Dr. Chen has extensive experience in the study of local-global relations. Abroad, he is a guest professor at the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University in Shanghai and a research fellow at the Institute of Economics, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Nationally, he also has won an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship and a Great Cities Institute Faculty Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2005, he wrote As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces in the Pacific Rim, Rowman and Littlefield; in 2003, he co-authored with Anthony M. Orum, “The World of Cities: Places in Comparative and Historical Perspective,” Oxford, Blackwell Publishers. A graduate of Beijing Foreign Languages Institute, Dr. Chen received his Masters and Ph.D, both in sociology, from Duke University.
“Professor Chen is an accomplished scholar, theorizing and developing practical empirical models to chart the growth in cities. His experience working in China, India and also in Chicago means he has the knowledge of and sympathy for the sort of local and global work Trinity faculty and students have been engaged with for the past 20 or 30 years. He will bring new ideas to the table and make us see in new ways what we have been doing,” says Dr. Rena Fraden, the college’s Dean of Faculty.
Trinity’s Urban and Global Studies initiative fosters relationships between programs in Hartford and overseas, providing an integrated network of internships, research projects and other, experiential learning opportunities that complement the college’s curriculum across a broad range of disciplines.
This year alone at Trinity, more than 700 students have taken courses that either study Hartford issues or have worked in the city on assignments involving community agencies, neighborhood organizations, local schools, businesses, and hospitals. In addition, Trinity students also have participated in 160 internships throughout Hartford; another 50 or so students have been engaged in grant-funded projects involving the city.
Trinity students also have a strong interest in study abroad. While enrolled at Trinity, more than 50 percent of students study overseas at one of nine Trinity sites or other global studies programs.
Noting the level of student participation, Dr. Chen observes “I feel that I am coming to an exciting and productive environment at Trinity.” Dr. Chen is expected to arrive at Trinity this summer.
Currently, two contiguous Trinity buildings at the corner of Vernon and Broad streets are being renovated, centralizing the majority of Trinity’s Hartford- and global-focused programs in this new complex.
Trinity College is an independent, nonsectarian liberal arts college that was founded in 1823 in historic Hartford, Connecticut. The College’s 2,300 undergraduates are drawn from all parts of the U.S. and nearly 30 foreign countries. The faculty includes recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur award, Guggenheims, Rockefellers, and other national awards. The College is home to the eighth-oldest chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in the country. With its long history of academic excellence, Trinity is consistently ranked among the country’s top liberal arts colleges.
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