Blog

Supported by CUGS (Grossman & Kelter Funds), Via Guterres ’26 investigates how Chinese “one-dollar shops” are reshaping Dili’s economy, culture, and skyline. Interviews with customers, local vendors, and shop owners reveal a city prioritizing affordability and access while struggling with identity and regulations. What does convenience mean for Dili’s future?

by Xiangming Chen Director, Urban Studies and Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Global Urban Studies and Sociology Student Research/Scholarship at and After Trinity Student research in Urban Studies has been steady since ...

In Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, Alex Goiris '26 led an interdisciplinary project sponsored by the Center for Caribbean Studies. He combined visual analysis and interviews to uncover how fragmented sidewalks shape daily life. By linking design and psychology, the research highlights how uneven pavements affect accessibility, emotions, and sense of belonging, and how small urban details can reveal much larger stories about inclusion and public space.

Supported by the Center for Urban and Global Studies Summer Research Grant, Vy Duong ’26 investigated how labor export shapes social structures in her home country, Vietnam. Her project, Beyond Remittances, examines the cultural and generational shifts occurring as more young people leave home for work in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Through grant-funded research supported by the Center for Urban and Global Studies, Yulia Puhareva'26 spent the summer in Serbia. She was working with the University of Belgrade students on redesigning Autokomanda highway interchange for a better neighborhood connectivity. Blending engineering and urban studies, they used GIS and AR tools to propose people-centered redesigns, showing how even the most car-dominated infrastructure can turn into safe, human-inclusive spaces.

Cultural exchange and connection are at the heart of the experience of Technos International Week (TIW). Each year in Tokyo, Japan, students from Technos College host students from eleven sister schools for two weeks of programming. Dozens of Trinity students and faculty over the years have had the chance to travel to Tokyo for TIW with all essential expenses paid thanks to the support of Technos College and the Tanaka Memorial Foundation. For the June 8-21, 2025 trip, Trinity students Naisola Sarfo-Mensah and Simal Rashid were accompanied by Professor Kifah Hanna. In a special confluence, Ugnė Tumonytė '24 was one of the organizers of TIW. After participating in TIW in 2023, Ugnė applied for a teaching assistant position at Technos College, was selected for the position, and has spent the past year working in Tokyo.

Benedicte Baile and Alexander Cacciato received Projects for Peace grants for projects taking place in summer 2025. “These challenges are deeply personal to me, and I cannot stand by as my community suffers,” Benedicte wrote in her proposal. Benedicte and Alexander conceived of these projects separately, but the connection between the projects extends further than the fact that they both take place in West Africa. Both students began their journey at Trinity in Professor Garth Myers’ CTYP 101: Introduction to Urban Studies class, a first-year seminar coordinated through the Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS).

On April 10, 2025, Rio Smith presented his project “Understanding Urban Margins: How Statistics and Urban Policy Police Tokyo’s Homeless Geographies” as a 2025 Marcuss Fellow. Smith’s project examined how Tokyo’s state statistics represent the homeless population and their motivation in choosing how to represent these populations.

Isabella Paris is an Urban Studies and International Studies double major and one of the 2025 Marcuss Fellows. On April 10, 2025, she presented her project “Transnational Lives and Opportunities: An Analysis of Immigrant Experiences in New York City and Barcelona.” Paris describes the bulk of her project as analyzing immigrant community development and assimilation in both cities.

Boran Cui ’22 grew up in Beijing and has dreamed of attending Tsinghua University, China’s top-ranked university, since high school. This dream is now coming true for Cui, who will attend Tsinghua University next year as a Schwarzman Scholar. Cui will be the second Trinity alum to be a Schwarzman Scholar, following in the footsteps of Albert Ananyan ’24, who is currently at Tsinghua’s Schwarzman College.