Past Events

The Undergraduate Research Symposium is an annual event since 2002 designed to provide undergraduate students, from the University of Pittsburgh and other colleges and universities, with advanced research experiences and opportunities to develop presentation skills. The event is open to undergraduates from all majors and institutions who have written a research paper from a social science, humanities, or business perspective focusing on the study of Eastern, Western, or Central Europe, the European Union, Russia, or Central Eurasia. The 2021 Symposium will be online.

This panel will include a screening and discussion of Spice Boyz (Спайс бойз, 2019), a provocative Belarusian grotesque that features a bachelor party turned into horror when the groom and his friends use drugs and become violent. The film bears a complex relation to reality since the story is based on a true tragic event that happened in 2014 in Gomel and involved a person with a disability. Spice Boyz’s eccentric tone and disturbing images may pose a challenge to some viewers.
This screening will be available worldwide during the duration of the panel.
Curator and Host: Denis Saltykov, Ph.D. Candidate
Film and Media Studies Program
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Pittsburgh Introducer: Jeffrey Sconce, Professor
Screen Cultures Program
Department of Radio, Television, and Film
Northwestern University Respondent: Adam Lowenstein, Professor
Film and Media Studies Program
Department of English
University of Pittsburgh Please register for the screening here: https://watch.eventive.org/rfs/play/6074a3a0ddc59900cb3b42ef
Register for the introduction and discussion here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__mMTRvcPT_-0tbXjkLjPsw

This panel will screen and discuss About Kira Stealthily (О Кире украдкой, 2019) by Irina Vasilieva, a meta-reflection on the life and work of Kira Muratova, one of the most unusual and enigmatic directors of the Soviet space seen through the eyes of those who knew her and worked with her. The director herself will provide the introductory word about her film, as a commentary on the industry, the role of actor and director, and the place of a creator in the world in general.
This screening will be available worldwide during the duration of the panel. Curator and Host: Eve Barden, Ph.D. Student
Film and Media Studies Program
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Pittsburgh Introducer: Irina Vasil'eva, Art Director
Studio Fishka-fil'm Respondent: Robert Clift, Associate Professor
Film and Media Studies Program
Department of English
University of Pittsburgh Please register for the screening here: https://watch.eventive.org/rfs/play/60749fea2bcd4e00b344d19e
Please register for the introduction and discussion here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZKDuERBYQjqFl5pAZ3qDAg

Russian tutoring available for students by appointment. Book your appointment here: https://calendly.com/katya-kovaleva/russian-language-tutoring

Is it getting harder to speak up in both democracies and dictatorships? This forum will explore the role of political cartooning in the development of civil and political freedoms in our times. Please join us for a discussion of cartooning and free speech regulation in Europe, the cartooning experience of the Ghanaian satirical artist Bright Ackwerh, and the strategies of the Iranian government that changed the life of the editorial cartoonist and activist-in-exile Kianoush Ramezani. MODERATOR:
Oleg Minin is Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian at Bard College. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. His fields of specialization include the literature, visual, and performing arts of the Russian Silver Age and Russian avant-garde; the satirical press of the Russian fin de siècle; Habermas’s social theory and Bourdieu’s theory of cultural production; and language pedagogy. His work has been published in The Russian Review, Experiment: A Journal of Russian Culture, and Slavic and East European Journal. He is the co-curator of the exhibition Demonocracy: All Hell Breaks Loose in 1905 Russia at the Doheny Memorial Library, USC, and curator of the Ferris Collection of Sovietica at the Institute of Modern Russian Culture. He previously taught at the University of Southern California; California State University, Northridge; Glendale Community College; and University of California, Riverside. At Bard since 2012. SPEAKERS:
Nives Rumenjak obtained her Ph.D. in History from the University of Zagreb. She is a senior IR Lecturer and Head of the IR Department at Webster University’s Leiden campus. Since 2008, she has been a Center Associate at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Previously, Dr. Rumenjak held a research position at the Croatian Institute of History in Zagreb for eleven years, where she published her most comprehensive book, The Political and Social Elite of Serbs in Croatia at the End of the 19 Century: The Rise and Decline of the SerbianClub. Dr. Rumenjak’s areas of expertise include Central and Southeast European studies, sociohistorical prosopography of elite groups, nationalism, borderland identities, freedom of expression and political cartooning in the modern era. Her recent article, titled "Freedom of expression in multicultural societies: Political cartooning in Europe in the modern and postmodern eras," is published in 2019 in Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication. Bright Ackwerh, born 1989 is an artist from Ghana. He is a product of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where he earned a BFA and MFA in painting and sculpture. His practice is situated in the field of painting, illustration and street art. He was the recipient of the Kuenyehia prize for Ghanaian Contemporary Art for 2016, an honor conferred on him by a jury led by Professor Emeritus El Anatsui. Bright’s work had been gaining critical acclaim on social media because of his strategy to question the limited spaces available for displaying his art and for engaging a young art audience in his hometown of Ghana. Bright Ackwerh’s practice has been heavily influenced by the Ghanaian artist duo FOKN BOIS and the work of Nigerian activist and musician Fela Kuti in how they have made social commentary. Mr. Ackwerh’s work has recently been centered on investigating pop culture as a medium which he also explores through public poster making. His work has been shown in group exhibitions in Ghana and abroad including ‘Cornfields in Accra’ in 2016, ‘Orderly Disorderly’ in 2017 and his first solo ‘Where De Cho Dey’ in 2018. He has also been involved in organizing art workshops in the northern region of Ghana in collaboration with some development agencies based in Tamale. Bright is currently studying at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and continues to make work inspired by global popular culture. Iranian award-winning editorial cartoonist and activist-in-exile, Kianoush Ramezani lives and works in Europe since 2009. His editorial cartoons appear regularly in French newspapers and media like Courrier International and La Croix, and have also been published in Libération, Arte, We Demain and other international media. A series of Kianoush's original cartoons are part of the collection of Kunstmuseum Solingen in Germany. He received the French award for artistic courage of 2018 in the Angouleme International Comics Festival. He has given educational lectures in high schools, colleges and universities since 2010 in Europe in order to raise awareness about the importance of "the freedom of expression" among the young generation. He chose “Cartooning: The Art of Danger” for his TEDx talk in 2014, months before Charlie Hebdo’s terrorist attack. Kianoush follows international and local societies, educational systems and other art fields like short films, installation and video arts. He has been curating and directing international cartoon exhibitions and awards since 2011 in Europe [France, Sweden, Germany, etc.]. He has been a jury member of Interfilm Berlin [International short film festival] in 2015 and 2016. Kianoush is the co-founder and President of “United Sketches,” an international organization promoting freedom of expression and cartoonists in exile.

This presentation will explore the structure of decision-making on national security issues as established in the National Security Act of 1947 and as practiced today. While established by law, the US National Security Council is designed to advise the president; most decisions are ultimately up to him. Therefore, this presentation will also examine the varying leadership styles of modern US presidents and how those personal styles have influenced national security decision-making, with a particular focus on examples from the Bush and Obama presidencies, during which Professor Santucci was working in the US Government. Julia Santucci, Senior Lecturer of Intelligence Studies, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs With a decade of experience in national security and foreign policy positions at the White House, CIA, and the Department of State, Senior Lecturer Julia Santucci has tackled policy challenges from an intelligence, national security, and human rights perspective. Not only has she interacted frequently with high-level government officials about decisions on critical policy decisions, she provided written assessments and oral briefings to the President. REGISTER HERE: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iCAQh6i0Sb2cIzXFY9Ztsg

What was the nature of 'the book' on the Silk Road? How can we move beyond Eurocentric terminology toward an organically Eurasian codicology? This workshop introduces scholars to the study of manuscripts, posing fundamental questions about what we can learn from this field in a Eurasian context. PLEASE NOTE that registrations are limited and will be confirmed on a first-come, first-serve basis for Ph.D. students and faculty who work on Eurasia and can meet the language prerequisites specific to each topic. PREREQUISITE
Participants should have some facility in a relevant premodern language INSTRUCTOR
Devin Fitzgerald
Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing
UCLA Library Special Collections COLLABORATOR
Michelle McCoy
Assistant Professor
History of Art and Architecture
University of Pittsburgh REGISTER HERE: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcsdO-oqDsoGdac39Koc2n55PhgEyCcJTnz