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Student Research posted by Alex Goiris'26 - Reposted from the Center for Caribbean Studies Research Blog, source

Walking the Fragments: Visual Sidewalk Stories from Ciudad del Este, Paraguay

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.

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Student Research posted

Reimagining Highways: Student Research in Belgrade, Serbia

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.

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Marcuss Fellows posted by Emma Kozak '25

Marcuss Fellow Rio Smith ’25 Researches State Statistics and Homelessness in Tokyo

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.

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Marcuss Fellows posted by Emma Kozak '25

Marcuss Fellow Isabella Paris ’25 Researches Immigrant Community Development in New York City and Barcelona

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.

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Marcuss Fellows posted by Gabby Nelson

Researching Transit in Portland and Copenhagen, Asian-Owned Businesses in Hartford as Marcuss Fellows

This year’s Marcuss Fellows worked on global urban studies research projects from two different lenses. Rory Trani ’24 was inspired by having her first tastes of freedom as a teenager on the Portland, Oregon area metro system (known as the MAX) and by her experience of the efficient, modern metro system while studying away in Copenhagen. Rory used these experiences, an extensive literature review, and interviews conducted on the trains in both cities to compare the two transit systems under the guidance of Professor Garth Myers. Hannah Lorenzo ’24 was inspired by her identity as a Filipina American to investigate the role and importance of Asian-owned food businesses in the Hartford area. While Rory took a comparative global approach, Hannah investigated the importance of complexities of diasporic communities in Hartford while being advised by Professor Keavy McFadden.

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Summer Research posted by Emma Kozak '25

Rio Smith ’26 Studies the Evolution of the Sanya District in Tokyo

Sanya is a district in Tokyo that had a day laborer market which peaked in the 1980s. Today there is a gap in the literature about the decline of the region since. Rio Smith ’26 spent his summer studying the evolution of Sanya since the eighties and what the district is like today using a Tanaka Fund for International Research summer grant through CUGS. Smith is an urban studies major with a minor in philosophy who grew up between Los Angeles and Tokyo.