_____________________________________________________________________________________
WELCOME TO C.U.G.S.

Dear Guests:

Welcome to our virtual home, a web-based window into The Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS) at Trinity College.  Officially inaugurated on October 19, 2007 through a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center has also been generously supported by donors to the Trinity College Mellon Challenge for Urban and Global Studies.

CUGS integrates urban and global studies with an assortment of programs in a way that marks Trinity's identity as a leading urban liberal arts college with a global reach and footprint.

For more information, we invite you to read our Mission Statement.  Second, we encourage you to read about CUGS Background and Rationale.  Third, visit our Strategy and Benefits page to learn more about how CUGS seeks to promote curricular initiatives, research projects, and civic engagement with a broad urban and global focus by working closely with the departments and programs at Trinity, a variety of organizations in the city of Hartford, and international partners.

Next we hope you will take a look at the various Programs and Affiliates, to learn more about why and how CUGS brings these separate, yet closely related units under one roof. While some of these programs carry continued links to their older pages, others have developed new web pages. We encourage you to visit our web-home frequently, as we are constantly seeking to improve and invigorate our mission with new ideas, information, and initiatives.

Our section About the Staff will introduce you to each member of the entire team working at the Center.  Next, we invite you to read through the Events and Projects page to see the programs and activities in which CUGS has been a key partner, but more important, to see current and future events that CUGS will be sponsoring or co-sponsoring.

I hope you will enjoy browsing the pages of our virtual home, and also invite you to read the Center's new brochure by clicking here and send us your suggestions for improving the site via the “Contact Information” page.  More importantly, I invite you to participate in our current and future events and activities, and to visit our physical home at 70 Vernon Street, on the Trinity campus.

Sincerely,

Xiangming Chen

Dean and Director

Center for Urban and Global Studies

Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of

Sociology and International Studies

Trinity College

Hartford, Connecticut

Xiangming.Chen@trincoll.edu




_____________________________________________________________________________________