Featured Profile

Xiangming Chen was appointed inaugural Dean and Director of Trinity’s new Center for Urban and Global Studies (CUGS) and Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Trinity College on July 1, 2007. Dean Chen leads CUGS in developing and strengthening meaningful and synergistic linkages of teaching, research, and service in urban and global studies, broadly defined, between Trinity’s academic programs and its various forms of experiential learning on campus, in Hartford, and globally. Drawing from interdisciplinary literature and using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, his research focuses on the comparative and transnational facets of global-urban relations in the local and regional contexts of China and Asia with a recent focus on Shanghai and the surrounding region. He has authored and edited four books and published over 50 papers, essays, and reviews in refereed journals and edited books. From 1989 to 2007, he served as Assistant to Full Professor of Sociology with adjunct appointments in Political Science and Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he directed the International Studies, Asian Studies, and Sociology graduate programs, and taught both undergraduate and graduate courses including: Introduction to Urban Sociology, Cities and Regions, Making Sense of Globalization, Introduction to Comparative Sociology, and Comparative Methods.