Past Events

Please join us on October 2nd at 3pm at Hillman Library (K. Leroy Irvis Room, Ground Floor) for the opening of the photo exhibition "Standing for Freedom: Portraits of Scientists in Exile". Meet the creator Professor Pascale Laborier and hear her talk about the project. The talk will explore both the conception of the exhibition and the broader context of academic exile: how the loss of academic freedom often signals democratic decline, and how hosting programs both preserve individual academic lives and sustain intellectual traditions under threat. Attendees will discover the photographic approach used in the exhibition, where each subject was invited to select personal and symbolic objects representing their home, host country, and research, lending depth and transparency to their stories. The presentation will reflect on the intersections of research, art, and advocacy in representing and supporting scholars at risk, underscoring the ongoing importance of international solidarity for academic freedom.

After World War II, the USSR's leaders relied heavily on construction materials mined and produced in recently liberated territories to rebuild the country's ruined cities. This paper traces the material networks linking Soviet cities to forests, quarries, and factories supplying the wood, marble, brick, and cement integral to Soviet rebuilding. Focusing on the Aseri Brickworks and Kunda Cement Factory, both located along Estonia's northern coast, the paper examines the interplay between Soviet occupation and materials extraction. Part of the Socialist Studies Seminar series.

Tuesdays, 4-5pm
Braun Room (12th Floor), Cathedral of Learning Come to chat, practice, meet others who are interested in Hungarian and Hungary! All levels are welcome. For more info, contact Dr. Viktoria Batista (vib21@pitt.edu)

The Celebrate Africa Festival brings students, faculty, and staff together with the vibrant African diaspora community in Pittsburgh. There is food, song & dance, artisans, children's activities, and more! It is a wonderful opportunity to engage with the diversity of Africa and the Pittsburgh community, as well as network with local African organizations and businesses.

The collapse of the USSR and the cultural revolution called "Perestroika" were reflected in numerous contemporaneous films, books and surprisingly even in video games. Games were just entering the mainstream, invisible to censorship and inaccessible to most of the public, and nevertheless multiple games trying to represent the historical moment appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This talk looks at three video games made in different parts of the Soviet Union during the Perestroika as relics testifying to the confusion, anxiety and optimism of the Post-Soviet 1990s.

As part of the STARTALK Summer Program, students will be practicing salsa in Russian.