Past Events

This past June, the Global Studies Center and the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh hosted the Interdisciplinary Global Educators Working Group, where teachers came together virtually to design an interdisciplinary global unit or lesson. They were provided time, space, and materials to gather with like-minded colleagues and collaborate on unique and inspired lesson plans across subject areas. Join us over Zoom for virtual presentations from our working groups on their newly designed projects and the process they went through in designing their interdisciplinary lessons. If you are interested in participating in this workshop in the future, this is an excellent opportunity to learn more! This showcase is open to all K-12 educators and administrators. No registration is required, please join at the following link: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/91931181262

International Development Work in Various Communities October 20th, 6pm-7pm, Virtual Format Sakun Gajurel, Volunteer Initiatives and Youth Engagement Coordinator, UNICEFF Rotary Peace Fellow, World Food Programme, Disaster Relief, Refugee Operations Sakun is an international development professional with experience serving in Nepal, Thailand, Italy, India, Bangladesh and the US. She has aided vulnerable communities in multi-lingual settings, including disaster situations, in the capacity of program support, communication, advocacy, and as a community outreach officer. Sakun has assisted organizational development, project management, monitoring and evaluation initiatives, and partnerships. She currently serves as Emerging Leader for UCIS at Pitt, and will discuss her career trajectory, experience serving South Asian Refugee Community, and efforts to aid local teachers and the university community. To Register: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcsdemupzkrG9cL-ZORMx6WJD6yDvGE9YEh Sponsored by: Asian Studies Center, Center for African Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies, European Studies Center, and Global Studies Center

Germany After Merkel Panellists: Jana Puglierin, ECFR; Rafael Loss, ECFR; Marcel Lewandowsky, UF CES and DAAD On September 26, Germany elected a new parliament. With it a new coalition government will come to power and Angela Merkel will depart the political stage after serving for 16 years as federal chancellor. Who might succeed her? What will be the foreign policy priorities of the new government? And how do Germany’s European partners view Merkel’s legacy and Germany’s role in Europe? Dr. Jana Puglierin and Rafael Loss of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and CES’ DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor Marcel Lewandowsky will discuss the results and implications of the German vote and the expectations of Germany’s European partners toward Berlin and its new leadership. #JMintheUS

Europe's views on Black America are informed by a range of contradictory tendencies: amnesia about its own colonial past, ambivalence about its racial present, a tradition of anti-racism and international solidarity and an often fraught geo-political relationship with the United States itself. Europe both resents and covets American power, and is in little position to do anything about it. So African Americans represent to many a redemptive force– living proof that that US is both not all that it claims to be and could be so much greater than it is. This sense of superiority is made possible, in no small part, by a woefully, wilfully incomplete and toxically nostalgic understanding of Europoe's own history which has left significant room for denial, distortion, ignorance and sophistry. The result, in the post-war era, has been moments of solidarity often impaired by exocitisation or infantilisation in which Europe has found it easier to export anti-racism across the Atlantic than to practice it at home or export it across the Channel, the Mediterranean and beyond. Gary Younge, author, broadcaster, and editor-at-large for The Guardian based in London, England will be delivering as talk on How Europe (Mis)Understands Black America as the 2021-22 Jean Monnet Center Distinguished Lecture. Gary Younge is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. JMEUCE Distinguished Lecture Series. This event is a part of International Week. #JMintheUS

In the summer of 2019, Hong Kong-- former British colony, current special administrative region of the People's Republic of China-- was swept up by a large, sustained protest movement. The spark that lit this "revolution of our time" as protestors have deemed it was an extradition treaty with China, but quickly evolved into a broader movement for a more democratically representative government and autonomy from the People's Republic of China. In a stunning backlash against the movement, the PRC government announced they would unilaterally enact a sweeping national security law, quickly marking much of the previous year's protest movement illegal. In the past year, activists, lawyers, elected officials have been arrested and NGOs and media outlets shuttered at a dizzying pace, fundamentally altering the civic, legal, and cultural landscape of the city. Drawing upon Hong Kong's long history of grassroots activism-- and backlash against it-- from the early twentieth century through the present, this talk will offer a historical view of how protest became a cherished human right and a locus of popular power in Hong Kong, using this history to discuss the implications of the national security law on human rights in the city today.

Talk with Jussi Hanhimaki to discuss his latest book 'Pax Transatlantica' - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pax-transatlantica-9780190922160... #JMintheUS