Blog

Trinity sophomore Bennet Gessler grew up in Germany, spent two years at UWC Costa Rica, and found his academic home in East Asian politics. This year, a research assistantship with Prof. Reo Matsuzaki sparked something bigger: a CUGS-funded month in Taiwan, where Bennet interviewed people working in business and trade to understand how the “One China” policy shapes identity in everyday life. In this post, he shares what he learned, how he found interviewees, and why the project is only just beginning.

Why do so many Americans describe college as the best years of their lives? Drawing on Jan Gehl’s Cities for People, this piece suggests the answer has less to do with youth and more to do with walkability, proximity, and life at human speed — something many leave behind after graduation.

José Ginocchio Moraiz ‘23 has been using his creativity and advocacy to advance human rights since before he came to Trinity. An international student from Argentina, José attended United World College of the Adriatic before coming to Trinity as an anthropology and human rights major. As a teenager, he volunteered in humanitarian shelters for displaced populations and undertook leadership roles in civil society organizations. The breadth of his activities and depth of his commitment to disadvantaged communities has only grown since then. After working on human rights issues for the last couple of years, José applied for and was accepted to Schwarzman Scholars, a prestigious one-year, fully funded master’s degree program in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. 

Urban Studies welcomes development sociologist Dr. Mushahid Hussain, whose work spans topics from agrarian change to urban life in cities from Dhaka to Hartford.

What happens when one class reshapes your entire perspective on cities? For Nellie Conklin ’26, it meant finding her academic passion and setting her on the path to becoming this year’s Presidential Scholar in Urban Studies. Her work since then has spanned from neighborhood walks in Hartford to on-site field study in Rome, and from classroom projects to collaborations with local housing organizations. Nellie brings curiosity and focus to every part of her work, and she plans to bring that approach with her as she returns to Boston after graduation to pursue a career in affordable housing.

This November, Trinity students had the chance to hear directly from two foreign ambassadors visiting Hartford. Through a partnership between the Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS) and the World Affairs Council (WAC) of Connecticut, students attended two events in the 2025 Global Security Forum Series.

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.