The Cities Program

 Trinity College

The Cities Program at Trinity College 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 selected members of each entering class ­ students who are chosen on the basis of their strong academic qualifications and 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:

Cities have played a central role in recorded history from ancient times to the present. They have been centers 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, for a striking paradox of urban life is that it often combines much of the best in human experience with some of the worst.

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, anthropology, economics, politics, and sociology, among other fields. While the primary emphasis is cities in Europe and the United States, attention is also given to urbanization elsewhere, including the recent explosive growth of "mega-cities" (e.g., Sao Paulo, Lagos, Cairo, Jakarta) in the developing world.

Among the many challenging and controversial questions that students in the Program explore are: Can there be civilization without cities? 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, secularization, and the development of the nation-state? Why are many of today's cities, in the United States and elsewhere, beset by wrenching social, economic and political crises? What can be done to resolve those crises? 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?

In pursuing answers to such questions, students in The Cities Program take an integrated sequence of six courses expressly created for the Program, plus a culminating Final Requirement. Typically, they complete the course sequence by the end of the sophomore year and fulfill the Final Requirement in the junior or senior year. They have a choice among four different options for the Final Requirement, including a CityTerm internship in Hartford and an independent research project on a foreign city during a semester of study abroad.

The Program takes advantage of Trinity's location by using Hartford as a site for the close-up study of urban issues and by drawing on its rich array of intellectual and cultural resources. Students are given numerous opportunities to supplement their classroom learning by getting personally involved with the complex social and economic problems of this city, which in many respects is a microcosm of urban America. Thus, the Program attracts not only students interested in the academic study of cities but also those of an activist bent who wish directly to engage the manifold challenges of modern urban life.

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.

The Curriculum

The prescribed six-course sequence, which is open only to students enrolled in The Cities Program, and the Final Requirement options are as follows:

Fall Semester, First Year
CTYP 101. Reckoning with Cities: Issues and Insights ­ This course, which serves as the Program's equivalent of a First-Year Seminar, provides an introduction to a range of important and controversial questions central to the understanding of cities, past, present, and future. To illuminate the questions, students read, discuss, and write analytical papers on a number of "classic" or otherwise influential books on cities ­ books drawn from a variety of humanities and social science disciplines. In addition, the course will make use of Hartford as a microcosm for the study of urban issues, with field trips into the city and special presentations by municipal officials, community activists, and so forth.

Spring Semester, First Year
CTYP 201. The Development of Urban Life, Antiquity to 1900 ­ An introduction to the methods and practice of studying urban life from an historical perspective. The focus of the course is the sequence of events in Euro-America which culminate in the modern twentieth-century city. The purpose is to prepare students to participate in a discussion of the nature and fate of urban life in today's interdependent world by giving them the European context and theory which that discussion may challenge and amend.

CTYP 202. The City as Built Environment ­ This course examines the architectural and planning history of major European and American cities from ancient Greece to ca. 1900. Topics will include the nature of city centers and the role of public space, the formalization of town planning as a discipline, patterns of patronage and architectural education, the infrastructure of cities, and the influence of new technologies and industrialization on cities. A selection of examples ­ Athens, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Washington, DC, Berlin, Vienna, New York ­ will serve as case studies.

Fall Semester, Sophomore Year
CTYP 203. Twentieth-Century Perspectives on the City ­ An intensive examination of selected 20th-century cities from around the world, informed by contemporary theoretical debates about urban development. Particular attention will be given to decolonization, to racial and ethnic divisions, and to global economic changes that have shaped modern (and post-modern?) cities.

CTYP 204. The City Imagined: Visual and Literary Representations of Urban Life ­ Drawing upon works of imaginative literature, the visual arts, film, and popular culture, this course will examine representations of urban life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The approach of the course will be both comparative, drawing upon works from a variety of cultural and historical settings, and thematic, considering such issues as the city and immigrants, urban life and work(ers), cities and the production of culture, and utopian and dystopian visions of urban life. We will be primarily concerned with exploring the ways in which urban life shapes, and is shaped by, these cultural representations.

Spring Semester, Sophomore Year
CTYP 205. Social Science Approaches to the City ­ This course will bring to bear various social science perspectives on issues facing the contemporary city, such as its growth and decline, its internal stratification, its potential for renewal, its crisis of governance, and its locus of the "underclass."


To round out the Program, students satisfy the Final Requirement by selecting one of these four options during either the junior or senior year:

Students may also petition the Program's director and faculty steering committee for permission to use other appropriate modes of study to fulfill the Final Requirement.

Admission to the Program

In the spring of each year, applicants for admission to Trinity who are judged to have the necessary academic qualifications and potential interest in studying cities are invited to become candidates for enrollment in The Cities Program. Other applicants to the College who find the Program appealing are encouraged to seek admission to it as well. Inquiries should be sent to Dean J. Ronald Spencer, the Program's director. His postal address is Williams Memorial 232, Trinity College, Hartford 06106; his e-mail address is ronald.spencer@mail.trincoll.edu.; and his phone number is (860) 297-2145.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to basic questions about The Cities Program that potential applicants may have:

What are the qualities The Cities Program looks for in participating students?
Exceptional academic talent and motivation; and eagerness to gain deeper knowledge and understanding of cities, including contemporary urban issues, through rigorous, interdisciplinary study.

How do I become a candidate for admission to The Cities Program?
Each year ­ typically in March ­ selected applicants for admission to Trinity are invited to consider enrolling in the Program. If you receive such an invitation and are interested in participating, send written notice of your interest to the Program's director, Dean J. Ronald Spencer, by the date specified in the letter of invitation. Any other student seeking admission to the College who finds the Program attractive may become a candidate for it by writing to Dean Spencer.

What happens if I express interest in The Cities Program?
If the Admissions Office acts favorably on your application to Trinity, a faculty committee will then review your academic qualifications and determine whether to admit you to the Program. If you are accepted, you will be notified by mid-April and given to the end of the month to decide whether to enroll.
Since The Cities Program is limited to 25 students in each entering class, it may not be possible to admit everyone who wishes to participate. In that case, preference is given to those students deemed to have the greatest aptitude and motivation for the kind of demanding work the Program involves. The decision is based on information already in your Admissions Office file (school grades, teacher recommendations, test scores, etc.).

Will my chances of being admitted to Trinity be influenced by whether or not I apply to The Cities Program?
No. The Program is not a factor in Admissions Office decisions. If you are invited to become a candidate for the Program but choose not to do so, that will not adversely affect your chances of gaining admission to Trinity. Nor will your chances be improved if you express interest in the Program.

If I am invited to participate in The Cities Program and one of Trinity's other special programs for selected first-year students (The Guided Studies Program: European Civilization and the Interdisciplinary Science Program), can I enroll in both?
No. It is not feasible to participate in more than one such program. If faced with a choice, select the program that you think comes closest to your particular academic interests.

Can I enter The Cities Program anytime after the start of the first year?
If space is available, a few qualified students may be allowed to begin the Program as second-semester first-year students or first-semester sophomores.

Who will be my faculty adviser if I participate in The Cities Program?
Since students in the Program usually do not take a First-Year Seminar, they have as their freshman-sophomore adviser one of the Program's faculty members or its director. When you declare your major in the spring of sophomore year, you will be assigned an adviser in your major department or program.

If I participate in The Cities Program, will I still have time during my first two years to take courses in other subjects, including those in which I may want to major?
Yes. During the first and second years combined, students take a total of from 17 to 19 courses. Only six of these are in the Program. Thus, you will have ample opportunity to explore other areas of Trinity's curriculum.

Will participation in The Cities Program limit my choice of major?
No. The Program is designed to be compatible with every major offered at Trinity, including those in the arts, the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.

Can Cities Program students study abroad?
Yes. In fact, one of the Program's four options for the Final Requirement centers on overseas study.

Am I obligated to complete The Cities Program if I begin it?
No. Students may withdraw from the Program at the end of any semester and will receive full academic credit for all those courses in it that they have successfully completed up to that time.

If I am admitted to The Cities Program will I be entitled to remain in it until completion?
Yes, provided that you do satisfactory work. However, students whose performance falls short of the standards of the Program can be required to withdraw from it.

How does The Cities Program relate to Trinity's general education requirements?
The Program may be used to fulfill the Integration of Knowledge requirement that all Trinity students must meet. In addition, some of the Program's courses satisfy the humanities and social science distribution requirements.

What recognition is accorded students who participate in The Cities Program?
Successful completion of the Program is noted on the student's permanent academic record (i.e., transcript).

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