Seminar

Extractive Empire: Bricks, Cement, and Soviet Material Movements after WWII

Type: 
Friday, September 26, 2025 - 4:00pm
Event Location: 
Baker Hall 246A, Carnegie Mellon University

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.

Policy Writing Seminar: Strategy and Style

Type: 
Thursday, February 27, 2025 - 10:00am to 1:00pm
Event Location: 
Posvar Hall 4303

Join the ValEUs Network and the University of Pittsburgh for a Policy Writing Workshop Series focusing on key themes: De/Migration; Decolonization; Europe Viewed from the South; Populism and Euroskepticism; Nation-building/state -interventionism; Critiquing or Affirming the EU/Values versus Realpolitik.

Designed for anyone in the ValEUs community with an interest in policy writing, the series encourages faculty and students to draft policy briefs for publication.

European Union as a Civilizing Power: Reminiscent of the Past?

Type: 
Thursday, February 29, 2024 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Event Location: 
4217 Posvar Hall

In this meeting we will consider whether and to what extent the rhetoric and practice of the European Union resembles the rhetoric and practices associated with the historical European
international society and its expansion that led to the creation of the contemporary global international society. To this end, two comparisons will be made: first, between the historical

Telling the Stories of Threatened Scholars in Pittsburgh: Audio Narrative Master Class

Type: 
Saturday, April 13, 2024 - 2:00pm

David Greene, award-winning journalist and former co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition, Shannon Reed, author and frequent contributor for The New Yorker, and Sean Guillory, host of The Eurasian Knot weekly podcast and producer of the award nominated Teddy Goes to the USSR podcast, will co-teach this hands-on course where students will work as a team to research, write, and produce a broadcast-quality audio narrative telling the stories of people around the world who have come to the University of Pittsburgh with the support of the Pittsburgh Network for Threatened Scholars.

Telling the Stories of Threatened Scholars in Pittsburgh: Audio Narrative Master Class

Type: 
Friday, April 12, 2024 - 1:00pm
Event Location: 
4130 Posvar Hall

David Greene, award-winning journalist and former co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition, Shannon Reed, author and frequent contributor for The New Yorker, and Sean Guillory, host of The Eurasian Knot weekly podcast and producer of the award nominated Teddy Goes to the USSR podcast, will co-teach this hands-on course where students will work as a team to research, write, and produce a broadcast-quality audio narrative telling the stories of people around the world who have come to the University of Pittsburgh with the support of the Pittsburgh Network for Threatened Scholars.

Technology, Humanity, and Social Justice

Type: 
Saturday, March 23, 2024 - 8:30am to 6:00pm
Event Location: 
Zoom

As humans rely more and more on electronic devices to support their everyday activities, there are ever present warnings about the impacts such reliance has on human autonomy ranging from who owns and controls information networks, the inequitable impact of technology consumption on peoples and places, varying accessibility of technology around the globe, and the promises and limitations of technology in improving human health.



Technology, Humanity, and Social Justice

Type: 
Friday, March 22, 2024 - 5:00pm to 8:00pm
Event Location: 
Zoom

As humans rely more and more on electronic devices to support their everyday activities, there are ever present warnings about the impacts such reliance has on human autonomy ranging from who owns and controls information networks, the inequitable impact of technology consumption on peoples and places, varying accessibility of technology around the globe, and the promises and limitations of technology in improving human health.



Telling the Stories of Threatened Scholars in Pittsburgh: Audio Narrative Master Class

Type: 
Saturday, February 10, 2024 - 2:00pm
Event Location: 
4130 Posvar Hall

David Greene, award-winning journalist and former co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition, Shannon Reed, author and frequent contributor for The New Yorker, and Sean Guillory, host of The Eurasian Knot weekly podcast and producer of the award nominated Teddy Goes to the USSR podcast, will co-teach this hands-on course where students will work as a team to research, write, and produce a broadcast-quality audio narrative telling the stories of people around the world who have come to the University of Pittsburgh with the support of the Pittsburgh Network for Threatened Scholars.