The Cities Program

The Cities Program is an integral part of Trinity's Center for Urban and Global Studies, which was officially inaugurated in October 2007. The Cities Program is an innovative, non-major program that examines cities - past, present, and future - in all their extraordinary variety and complexity. It is open to 25-30 selected members of each entering class-students who are chosen on the basis of their strong academic qualifications and  intellectual motivation, and who wish to make the study of cities an important part of their liberal arts education.

The distinguishing features of the Program include: 

• An interdisciplinary and comparative approach 
• Compatibility with every major offered at Trinity
  
• Use of the city of Hartford as a multi-dimensional educational resource
  
• Special courses open only to students in the Program
  
• Hands-on involvement with urban issues and problems through research projects, experiential learning, and internships in Hartford and world cities.

Cities have played a central role in recorded history from ancient times to the present.  They have beencenters of artistic and intellectual creativity, seats of political and military power, engines of economic growth and innovation, focal points of technological invention and scientific discovery, and arenas for the interaction of diverse peoples and cultures. They have been, as well, places of hardship, oppression, and social injustice - therefore cities present a striking paradox in urban life that often combines must of the best of the human experience with some of the worst.  Now, with half of the world's population living in cities for the first time in history, the study of hcities is becoming even more crucial to our understanding of economic development, cultural identity, social justice, and environmental challenges.  

The Program views cities from a broad range of perspectives in the humanities and social sciences, drawing on insights from history, architectural history and urban planning, literary and cultural studies, anthropoogy, economics, geography, politics, and sociology, among other fields.

The Cities Program balances a strong emphasis on older cities in Europe and the United States with timely attention to rapid urbanization elsewhere, especially the explosive growth of megacities (e.g., Johannesburg, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai) in the developing worldincluding the recent explosive growth of "megacities"  in the developing world.

Among the many challenging and controversial questions that students in the Program explore are:

• What have been the roles of cities in shaping past civilizations and the present and future global economy? 
  
• What have been the driving forces behind the rise-and the decline-of cities in various places and historical periods?
  
• What have been the benefits, and the costs, of urbanization?
  
• How have cities influenced, and been influenced, by industrialization, democratization, migration, and globalization?
  
• Why are many of today's cities, in the United States and elsewhere, beset by wrenching social, economic and political challenges?
  
• Why are a growing number of today's megacities (with 10 million or more people) in developing countries beseiged by serious crises, while at the same time are full of economic and social vitality.
  
• Have cities outlived their usefulness, as some critics claim, or will they adapt to changing circumstances and thus retain their central place in human affairs?

Cities

Program students pursue answers to such questions through four special first-year courses, plus a required integrating course and a final requirement in the sophomore year.

The Program takes students beyond Hartford to study world cities such as Rome, Barcelona, and Shanghai, where Trinity College runs its own semester-long-study-away programs; students in The Cities Program may also take advantage of shorter summer programs focusing on urban issues
through research projects, experimental learning, and internship opportunities. Thus, the program provides an international comparative approach to the study of the rich diversity and complexity of urban life in both Hartford and world cities. 

The participating faculty members carefully coordinate the courses (and other activities) to ensure curricular coherence and to help students integrate the diverse disciplines, materials, viewpoints, and experiences represented in the Program. The goal is for students not simply to take an assortment of courses on cities but to acquire a comprehensive, interdisciplinary understanding of this multi-faceted and complex subject.