Past Events

Come meet international students, make friends, practice conversational English, and have fun together, during these weekly discussion groups coordinated by the English Language Institute. Feel free to bring your lunch :)

The Romanian Room Committee invites you to celebrate Mărțișor. Mărțișor is an old Romanian tradition of giftinga red and white string attached to a small piece of jewelry or a flower. Learn the history of Mărțișor and join the members of the Romanian Room committee to make your own and for your friends. Learn more about this Romanian tradition which falls on March 1 of every year during which the gifting of a red and white string attached to a small piece of jewelry, or a flower is believed to bring health and luck to the wearer. Come enjoy Romanian snacks!

Come meet international students, make friends, practice conversational English, and have fun together, during these weekly discussion groups coordinated by the English Language Institute. Feel free to bring your lunch :)

Moderator: Erica Edwards, Unversity of Pittsburgh Panelists: Ralitsa Kovacheva, Sofia University Julia Partheymuller, University of Vienna Elena Bruni, LUISS Gudio Carli, Italy, Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer Not to be confused with misinformation, meaning inaccurate information, disinformation is false material meant to intentionally mislead or misinform individuals. Brought to the fore in 2016 with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, disinformation threatens to erode trust in democratic systems, weaken individual freedoms, and increasingly undermine governments around the world. While the U.S. has yet to make meaningful progress in addressing disinformation, Europe has moved forward with new legislation and initiatives. Join us for this session of Conversation on Europe in which we ask what steps Europe is taking to shore up EU values and counter disinformation. About our guest speakers: Ralitsa Kovacheva, Sofia University Dr Ralitsa Kovacheva is an Associate Professor in International Journalism at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sofia University“St. Kliment Ohridski.” Her research interests include international politics, media coverage of the EU, and EU-related issues focusing on disinformation and propaganda. In 2020, she created a special course, “Fake News and Disinformation”, for the Faculty`s Master programmes. Ralitsa Kovacheva has many years of journalistic experience. Since May 2021, she has been the editor-in-chief of the only platform in Bulgaria dedicated solely to factchecking- Factcheck.bg. She has published three books and a number of scientific articles.s: Julia Partheymuller, University of Vienna Dr. Julia Partheymüller is Senior Scientist at the Department of Government at the University of Vienna and a member of the Vienna Center for Electoral Research (VieCER). Previously, she held a position as DAAD lecturer at the University of Essex and worked as a researcher at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). She holds a doctoral degree in the Social Sciences from the University of Mannheim and has studied Political Science at the Free University Berlin and the University of Hamburg. She is part of the project team of the Austrian National Election Study (AUTNES) and has contributed to various other projects involving large-scale survey data collection, including the Austrian Corona Panel Project (ACPP), Reconciling Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and Rule of Law (RECONNECT), and the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES). Her research focuses on the nature and origins of public opinion and political behavior in European democracies. Additionally, she has undertaken interdisciplinary work, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as the British Journal of Political Science, West European Politics, Electoral Studies, the Journal of Common Market Studies, Nature Medicine and Frontiers in Public Health. Elena Bruni, LUISS Gudio Carli, Italy, Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer, University of Pittsburgh Elena Bruni is an Assistant Professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, Italy, and a former Marie Curie Skłodowska researcher at the Institute for Organization Studies at WU Vienna. She obtained her PhD in Management and Business from the University of Venice. Her research focuses on the linguistic and rhetorical processes that stimulate institutional change. In particular, she examines the mechanisms in which metaphors and other figures of speech are used to ascribe legitimacy and how different modes of communication (e.g., visual and written) may trigger or stifle collective action. Her work has been published recently in the Academy of Management Review and The Oxford Handbook of Metaphor in Organization Studies (2024), including two chapters written by her and her colleague Claudio Biscaro. She was awarded an additional European Commission Grant (2022-2025) to continue researching science denial and institutional trust. She is currently a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer at University of Pittsburgh teaching “The Rhetoric of Science Denial.”

Program: 1:00 PM: INTRODUCTION & WELCOME REMARKS Nancy Condee, REEES & Randall Halle, ESC 1:15 PM: PROVOCATION As geopolitical actor Europe aspires to empire/ has fallen into insignificance. Nancy Condee, REEES and Slavic Mohammed Bamyeh, Sociology Allyson Delnore, UCIS and History 2:30 PM BREAK 3:15 PM: PROVOCATION The strength of Euroscepticism, of illiberal parties and governments, is growing across the entire EU and is justified/unreasonable. Sean Guillory, REEES and History Donna Harsch, History (Carnegie Mellon University) Randall Halle, ESC and German 4:45 PM: BREAK 5:00 PM: KEYNOTE CONVERSATION America, Soviet Russia, Europe: Three Attempts at Shaping the 20th Century Moderated by: Nancy Condee, REEES and Slavic Gregor Thum, History What is a Provocation: Three formal presenters will have 7-10 minutes to present a pointed response, a set of theses, a brief case study responding to a statement designed to provoke (30 mins). After the formal presentations, we will turn to an open discussion. All in attendance will be invited to pose questions, offer responses, and present their own provocations (60 mins). If you have questions, concerns, requests for clarification or interest in presenting provocations, please contact Randall Halle, rhalle@pitt.edu.

Professor Abdou Seck is a decolonial scholar and activist from Senegal (West Africa). In this seminar, we will learn more about his work and what decolonial activism looks like from a West-African and Senegalese perspective! This chat will be facilitated by Dr. Pernille Røge and Dr. Oronde Sharif. Reception to follow! More about the speaker: Professor Abdou Seck founded and currently leads the Group for Action and Critical Study of Africa (GAEC – Africa), a decolonial group of activist scholars. Prof. Seck’s work centers on making theory accessible to people outside of academia and he engages with artists, musicians, indigenous communities, and boots-on-the-ground activists to bridge the gap between academia/theory to the populations living those lives that theory comes from. He brings critical knowledge of race and racial formation from a West African and Pan-Africanist perspective. This is all part of a larger conversation about the globalization of Africa and the Africanization of the globe – it is of critical importance to center African knowledge and uplift education about Africa in our communities and beyond.

Come meet international students, make friends, practice conversational English, and have fun together, during these weekly discussion groups coordinated by the English Language Institute. Feel free to bring your lunch :)