Mini Courses

BRICS Today

To meet student interests and time constraints, The University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University collaborate to offer intensive courses on topics of interest, taught by expert faculty, with lectures from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon, followed by a research paper. The courses are 1 credit hour or 3 units for CMU students, with about 14 hours of lectures and an expected 30 hours of work for the paper.

The courses have focused on countries with emerging economies: Brazil, India, China, Russia, and South Africa (BRICS). 

Register for these weekend courses as you would for any other course. The course numbers are included on weekend-today course descriptions. Since weekend-today courses are offered jointly, students register for University of Pittsburgh or Carnegie Mellon course numbers, depending on their affiliation. Registered students are required to complete specified follow up assignments to receive full credit.

Current course offering:

CHINA Today: Economy, Technology, and People: October 25-27, 2013. University of Pittsburgh course ECON 1903 (10090)

Muslims in a Global Context

Muslims in a Global Context is a semi-annual mini-course series for students, educators, and the broader community to learn from faculty experts and practitioners about issues of critical importance to the understanding of countries with significant Muslim populations. Each term the cluster of countries changes. In the past two years, three sections were offered covering Egypt and Northern African countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and the Gulf States and Iran.  Lectures are given that are both unique to the specific region as well as include general topics such as an historical overview, politics and policies, the role of religion in society, the role of women in statehood, education, economics and business development, US security and the region, and current cultural trends.

Students should register for these weekend courses as you would for any other course. Since weekend-today courses are offered jointly, students register for University of Pittsburgh or Carnegie Mellon course numbers, depending on their affiliation. Registered students are required to complete specified follow up assignments to receive full credit. While teachers and community members are not required to pay tuition, we ask that you register by contacting Veronica Dristas at dristas@pitt.edu.

Current course offering:

Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Philippines: November 15 – 17, 2013. The course number is PS1903 (28672).

Previous courses:

Gulf States and Iran: April 5-7, 2013
The Arab Spring: March 30 - April 1, 2012
Pakistan, India, Afghanistan: November 16-18, 2012

Future courses:

Fall 2014: Sub-Saharan Africa
Spring 2015: The Americas and Europe
Spring 2014: Central Asia and Turkey