Friday, April 16th, 2021
JMintheUS: The demise of the left and growth of rightwing populism in Europe: Foreign policy implications
Please join the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center on Friday, April 16, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET for a discussion on the decreased support for leftwing parties and the rise of rightwing populism in Europe. The event– co-sponsored by the Center for European Union, Transatlantic & Trans-European Space Studies (CEUTTSS) at Virginia Tech– will be based on Dr. Maria Snegovaya’s paper How ex-Communist left parties reformed and lost, and will explore the connection between neoliberal economic policies and the rise of rightwing populism in Europe among economically diverse social classes, as well as the foreign policy implications of this trend.
The panel will be moderated by Mr. Ben Haddad, Director, Europe Center, Atlantic Council, and will feature the author of the paper Dr. Maria Snegovaya, Research Fellow, Center for European Union, Transatlantic & Trans-European Space Studies (CEUTTSS) at Virginia Tech. The other three panelists will be Dr. Sheri Berman, Professor of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University; Dr. Yascha Mounk, Associate Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University; and Dr. Dalibor Rohac, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
A Zoom link will be sent to those who register. The event is open to the press and on the record.
Featuring
Dr. Sheri Berman, Professor of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University
Dr. Yascha Mounk, Associate Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Dalibor Rohac, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Dr. Maria Snegovaya, Research Fellow, Center for European Union, Transatlantic & Trans-European Space Studies (CEUTTSS) A Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, Virginia Tech; Nonresident Fellow, Eurasia Center, Atlantic Council
Moderated by
Mr. Ben Haddad, Director, Europe Center, Atlantic Council
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Thursday, April 15th, 2021
JMintheUS: The Formation and Institutionalization of New Parties in EU Member States
Presenter: Kristina Weissenbach
EU DEMOCRACY FORUM – IMAGINE THE FUTURE
Democracy cannot be taken for granted -- not in Europe, not anywhere. With this series of talks by experts on European politics and society we want to encourage discussion about the future of democracy in the European Union, its member states, and the neighborhood. As the EU Commission launches its Conference on the Future of Europe in 2021, we invite you to imagine this future with us. Our contributors will reflect on the EU’s achievements and challenges. We will hear their reflections on how to strengthen and expand democratic processes and institutions, both in Brussels and in Europe more broadly.
CoE: Creating Europe Through Creative Europe
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
The ESC’s 2020-21 theme, Creating Europe, explores both the political, social, cultural, and geographical forces that have given shape to contemporary Europe and also individuals who create and are creative in their daily or artistic expressions of what it means to be European.
Audience participation is encouraged.
Event information will be updated to include panelists and moderator.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a European context
Time: 9:25 am to 10:40 am
Presenter: Marcel Lewandowsky
For the first time after World War II, a radical right party is represented in the German federal parliament. In this regard, the Federal Republic has finally ‘caught up’ with other European countries who have witnessed the ongoing success of radical right pariahs. The presentation will analyze the ideology of the AfD in this context and reflect on the causes and consequences of its electoral success.
Marcel Lewandowsky is a DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor at the Center for European Studies, University of Florida.
Wednesday, April 14th, 2021
JMintheUS: The EU economy and the pandemic: short-term pain and long-term gain?
The pandemic has hit Europe hard. Tough shutdowns and social distancing measures have caused an unprecedented drop in economic contraction, while the recovery has been slowed down by the surge in new variants. Despite a rocky start, however, vaccines are now being rolled-out and the EU is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Large fiscal transfers and supportive monetary policy have cushioned the economic blow and the EU economy is expected to come out of this new crisis with a few scratches, but hopefully not the deep scars that characterised the European Debt Crisis. This is also thanks to innovative tools developed by the EU to support its weakest Member States. Despite these efforts, there is a material risk that not all Member States would recover at the same pace. Through its Next Generation package the EU is aiming at boosting green and digital investments to address risks of economic divergence and fragmentation. At the same time it is preparing the EU economy for the challenges of decarbonisation and digital transformation. Join us for a webinar with Mr. Moreno Bertoldi, Mr. Kristian Orsini and Mr. Ben Carliner to discuss how the pandemic is reshaping EU economic governance and preparing Europe for the key challenges of the 21st century.
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JMintheUS: PROMOTING EUROPE: FROM FILMS AND NEWSREELS TO STREAMING MEDIA 1945-2020
After Brexit and in the middle of pandemic borders being raised, this presentation offers a historic review of the moving images of the European Project. Even as the German troops were withdrawing from occupied countries, the resistance started to produce newsreels, and this postwar media generally presented Europe as a project of hope for the future. As the 50s began the European project gained momentum and the work of promoting Europe extended into short film, documentary and even feature film. With the establishment of the European Community new resources for media production emerged along with a more organized European information policy. Nevertheless national, regional and private production contributed visual material to the European project. And in the critical spirit of the 1960s and 1970s media projects started to explore the more difficult aspects of European open markets like unemployment and labor migration.
From surrealist Italian bureaucrats, to radioactive French scientists, to Churchill’s pro-Europeanism, these projects offer often surprising insights. Reviewing this work we not only see the struggles of the European project, but we follow changes in format and technology. Newsreels gave way to television style reporting give way to the satellite and streaming distribution of the European Commission’s Audiovisual Services.
This presentation will review the history of the moving images of Europe from those early postwar days to the present. It will rely on clips to provide the audience a chance to see for themselves. And it will offer a set of links to foster further viewing and exploration.
Monday, April 12th, 2021
2021 Euro Challenge
The Euro Challenge is a national competition for cash prizes where 9th and 10th grade high school students test their knowledge and understanding of the European economy and the Euro, the currency shared by many of the 28 countries of the European Union. The European Studies Center is proud to host the Western Pennsylvania regional competition for Euro Challenge at the University of Pittsburgh.
This year's competitions will be held virtually. The top team(s) from the regional competition will advance to the national competition.
To learn more about Euro Challenge and register for the 2021 competition, please visit www.euro-challenge.org.
Thursday, April 8th, 2021
JMintheUS: The Role of lifelong learning, languages, and trainings in transatlantic work contexts
This panel promotes and discusses the need for educational work components, such as life-long learning in rapidly changing fields, or European language learning, with participating European-focused language education professionals and faculty.
LOOKING BACK TO SEE BEYOND: Rediscovering empowering historical legacies on the EU’s Free Movement of Persons
This talk will explore the transnational roots, debates, and conditions for the diachronic implementation of a game-changing policy: The EU’s Free Movement of Persons. Indeed, historical analysis and the normative legacies on human mobility rights can provide a deeper understanding of European integration and of current challenges related to EU migration and asylum policymaking.
A Grubhub credit will be available to the first 20 people to register (only available within the U.S.)
Tuesday, April 6th, 2021
JMintheUS: Spotlight on the Eastern Mediterranean
Over the past year, the Eastern Mediterranean has become a hotbed of geopolitical tensions. Long-established local rivalries have attracted new players and have become increasingly entangled with other major disputes, including those over gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean and continued instability in Libya. H.E. Alexandra Papadopoulou, Greece’s ambassador to the United States, and H.E. Marios Lysiotis, the Republic of Cyprus’ ambassador to the United States, and Matthew Palmer, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs for the US State Department, will discuss these subjects and more during a virtual conversation. SIS professor Doga Eralp will moderate the discussion, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Event registrants will receive an email containing the Zoom webinar link.
Biographies
Ambassador Marios Lysiotis has been the Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus to the US since September 2018. His previous roles include Diplomatic Advisor to the Minister of Defense, Ambassador to France, Ambassador to Austria, Permanent Delegate to UNESCO and OSCE, and many others.
Ambassador Alexandra Papadopoulou is the first female Ambassador of Greece to the US. Prior to that, she was also the First Female Permanent Representative of Greece to the European Union and served in other important positions, such as Head of the Diplomatic Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Director General for European Affairs/in charge of the Greek Presidency of the EU in 2014, Head of the Greek Liaison Office in Skopje and Deputy Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations. She also served as Head of the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) in Kosovo.
Matthew Palmer is a member of the Senior Foreign Service (class of Counselor) and serves currently as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibility for the Western Balkans and the Aegean. Previously, he was Director of the Office of South Central Europe. Earlier tours included Belgrade, Nicosia, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and various positions in Washington, D.C., including on the Secretary’s Policy Planning staff and at the National Security Council.
Professor Doga Eralp (moderator) is a senior professorial lecturer at American University's School of International Service. He is a scholar-practitioner of international conflict resolution with more than a decade of experience in international dialogue facilitation. His work focuses on social media and peace processes, cultures of violence, narrative mediation, collective memory, security and peace regimes, regional organizations, international mediation and democratization. Professor Eralp has also been consulting various think-tanks and international organizations such as the World Bank, NED and the UNOPS. He has a number of articles and book chapters published on the Western Balkans, Middle East, Cyprus, European Union and Turkey.
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JMintheUS: Economic Inequality After the Pandemic
A discussion of inequalities revealed and exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the public policy tools available to ameliorate them, and the likely paths economies will take in recovery.
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JMintheUS: The Human Dimension of Heritage in the EU
Karolina Nikielska-Sekula
Andreas Wiesand
Alexandra Xanthaki
Moderator: Andrzej Jakubowski, University of Opole & Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences
This panel will consider both the human rights law dimension of cultural heritage, and the role that heritage plays in protecting and realizing all human rights, comprising cultural rights. The panel will particularly refer to the protection of cultural rights of minorities, Indigenous peoples, and migrants.
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Friday, April 2nd, 2021
FLAC: Exploring Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum: History, Pedagogy, and Practice
Presenter: Dr. Deborah Reisinger
The University Center for International Studies (UCIS), with funding from Pitt?s Title VI National Resource Centers, has embarked on a four year initiative to increase the number of FLAC courses offered on campus. Dr. Deborah Reisinger?s presentation will help prospective instructors and students understand what FLAC is and why it is important. After the presentation, information about current FLAC courses at Pitt and successful strategies for developing new courses (including language ?trailers?) will be shared.
Dr. Deborah Reisinger
Associate Professor of the Practice in French, and Director of Language Outreach initiatives, Duke University
Deborah establishes connections between language proficiency and the disciplines. She is the author of numerous articles on language pedagogy, French for the Professions, and intercultural competence. She chairs the World Languages Advisory Committee to the College Board and is co-chair of the AP French Language and Culture Exam development committee.
Thursday, April 1st, 2021
Four Evenings Discussion: Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other (Discussion)
Four Evenings -- Global Literary Encounters
Location: Virtual - Register Online!
Cost: Free and Open to Public
In Conjunction with the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures program's "Ten Evenings" series, GSC is hosting "Four Evenings" pre-lecture discussions that put prominent world authors and their work in global perspective. Open to series subscribers and the Pitt Community, these evening discussions, conducted by Pitt experts, provide additional insight on prominent writers and engaging issues.
With Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo became the first Black woman to win the Booker Prize for Fiction. The novel is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity, across generations, in a group of Black British women. Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel that reminds us of all that connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are encouraged to be split apart. The twelve central characters of this multi-voiced novel lead vastly different lives. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.
Tuesday, March 30th, 2021
JMintheUS: Crisis Decision-Making: How COVID-19 Has Changed the Working Methods of the EU Institutions
UF Jean Monnet Chair Series - Pandemics in Europe: Political and Social Responses
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the dynamics of the EU institutions. Much attention has been paid to the functioning of the EU institutions at the highest political level, but less so at the working levels of the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament. What was the nature of EU action in this time and how well did the decision-making machinery work? This talk analyses all three main institutions by: a) describing how decisions are usually made; b) exploring how they are made in corona times; and c) assessing how well the individual institutions were equipped and able to adapt to these unusual circumstances.
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JMintheUS: Politics as a Tool for Freedom and Education as a Commitment for Equality
The European Union is strongly committed to the idea of equal rights and respect for diversity in all its dimensions. This talk will address the gender perspective and the importance of foreign policies to strengthen strategies and measures that promote education for equality and its implications in terms of health and personal, social, cultural and economic empowerment.
The vulnerability of girls and young women requires a specific focus on gender issues to ensure access to all levels of education. Thus, education is assumed as a commitment to equality that will require a broad education for behavioral changes in relation to gender violence, involving all men, women, boys, girls and communities. It is education for lucidity and freedom.
This type of education cannot be done without politics, as the place for the formal assumptions of rationality on topics such as freedom and equality. This first and theoretical dimension will not make sense without the practical execution of action plans that must necessarily have as an ally the research that analyzes, evaluates, remakes and builds solid bases of action.
The EU has ambitious Action Plans for Gender Equality. What is often lacking is the assessment of the activities put into practice. Of course, it is important to know if the proposed activities are implemented, but equally important is that the intended outcomes are realized. We need to know whether we are going in the right direction or if a change in strategy is in order. Constant and consistent evaluation is vital to maintain the intended trajectory, keeping in mind that these strategies will have to take into account the different contexts and priorities for each country or region.
We hope that you will join us. The Zoom meeting link will be emailed to you prior to the event.
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JMintheUS: Capitalist Transformations in East Central Europe since the Great Recession: What Do We Know? What Have We Missed?
Presenter: Dorothee Bohle
On March 30, 2021, Dorothee Bohle will join us to discuss "Capitalist Transformations in East Central Europe Since the Great Recession: What do We Know? What Have We Missed?"
This presentation asks three related questions:
If neoliberalism has implied the retreat of the state from economic roles, does the recent return of the state in the economy herald the end of neoliberalism?
Is there a causal rather than incidental relationship between transforming capitalism and the turn to authoritarian politics?
How do we make sense of right-wing governments' double attack on liberalism as a force of eocnomic dispossession, and simultaneously, as an advocate of political emancipation of women, ethnic and sexual minorities, and migrants?
Bohle is Professor and Chair in Social and Political Change in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute, Florence.
Learn More and Register Here https://virginiatech.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_04FfAuMoQkKAdiMyoh5G6w
JMintheUS: European Union-China Relations
Dina Moulioukova is a Lecturer of International Studies and Master of International Administration at the University of Miami where she teaches courses on security. Dina has completed her Ph.D. at the University of Miami with focus on innovative approaches to security studies. Prior to her studies at UM, Dina received her Master of Law degree law (LL.M.) at the University of Cambridge with focus on international law and J.D. from Kazan State University on Russian civil law and international law in Russia. Her current research concentrates on different aspects of Russian foreign policy and security, with special emphasis on Russia’s relations with the European Union, Russia’s energy security and geopolitical competition between the West and rising powers in Africa and Latin America. Dina has also widely published on the topics of her research and is currently working on finalizing her book. In addition to her academic interests, she has been engaged in a number of US Agency for International Development and Library of Congress’ projects on post-Soviet space and has served as an expert in roundtable discussions by Council on Foreign Relations and USSOUTHCOM.
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Thursday, March 25th, 2021
JMintheUS: European Union relations with its Southern Neighbors
Francisco Acosta Soto has been an EU official since 1993. He has been involved in EU external relations since 2000, particularly in the Middle East and in Latin America where he has served at the EU Delegations in Lebanon and Peru. From 2010 to 2016, he served as Head of the Latin American Council of the European Union External Action Service (EEAS) as well as Chairman of the EU Council Working Group on Latin America and the Caribbean responsible for Regional Affairs at the Americas Department. From 2016-2017, he served as European Union Fellow in Residence at the University of Miami European Union Center. Since then, he has been serving as Deputy Head of Mission for the Delegation of the European Union to Tunisia.
Wednesday, March 24th, 2021
JMintheUS: European Union-Middle East Relations in a Changing World
This conference will examine the opportunities and constraints that exist for the EU to maintain and expand diplomatic and commercial relations with the Middle East, while seeking to preserve the transatlantic partnership and to promote global stability. The conference will explore the ways in which bilateral relations are vital to both regions’ geostrategic and economic interests, and how security, human rights, refugee and other issues produce a complex interrelationship. 3 virtual panels with top scholars in this area shed light on the historical context, on joint issues of concern, and on the geopolitics in which EU-Middle East relations are embedded relations.
Program
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. History and Background of EU-Middle East Relations
Panel 1 addresses the histories and legacies of bilateral relations between Europe and the Middle East.
10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Contemporary Issues in EU-Middle East Relations
Panel 2 focuses on contemporary cultural, economic and political issues in bilateral relations.
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. The Geopolitics of EU-Middle Eastern Relations
Panel 3 assesses bilateral relations between Europe and the Middle East in light of the rise of other global powers.
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Saturday, March 20th, 2021
Loos and Pilsen: Exploring the Secret of Adolf Loos’ Pilsen Interiors Accompanied by Swing
Presenter: Miroslav Konvalina, Director, Czech Center, New York
The Czech Center New York is delighted to introduce a multi-media exhibition project, which aims to present Adolf Loos’ unique interior design work as a result of the architect’s long-term activity in Pilsen, Czech Republic. The project was initiated in 2020, marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Loos (1870–1933), a world-renowned epitome of modern interwar architecture of Moravian descent, whose ideas and implementations influenced contemporary architecture and inspired later events and trends in contemporary architecture on an international scale.
After an introduction by Miroslav Konvalina, Director of the Czech Center New York, participants will be invited to explore the online exhibit while listening to a concert by Pilsner Jazz Band from Loos’ interior in Pilsen.
REGISTRATION LINK: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwodOmrqjkuH90C8T3Y3Jtlfg-QcdxlNb0p
Transatlantic Cooperation in Pandemic Times
Keynote Address - 20th Czech and Slovak Studies Workshop
Presenter: Pavol Demeš, Senior Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
20th Czech and Slovak Studies Workshop
March 18-21, 2021
TRANSATLANTIC COOPERATION IN PANDEMIC TIMES
9:00 am (EDT) | 1:00 pm (GMT) | 2:00 pm (CET)
REGISTER: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkdu2hpj4uGdG3ZbUonmX4tSawD61rDL...
SPEAKER:
Pavol Demeš, Senior Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
DESCRIPTION:
The COVID-19 pandemic affected Europe and America in a particularly dramatic manner. Health systems, economies, and social life in the most developed countries have been going through severe tests last year. This keynote lecture will focus on the comparative aspects of the COVID-19 crisis in Europe and the United States, look at its impact on transatlantic relations, and bring examples of cooperation in combating this global pandemic.
BIO:
Pavol Demeš is a well-known Slovak expert on international relations and civil society, an author, and a photographer. Prior to the Velvet Revolution, Demeš was a bio-medical researcher at Comenius University in Bratislava. He is a graduate of Charles University in Prague. After democratic changes in 1989, he served in the Slovak government and was the co-founder of the Slovak Academic Information Agency-Service Center for the Third Sector, a leading NGO in the country. Appointed first to the Ministry of Education, he was later named Minister of International Relations (1991-2) and served subsequently as the Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Slovak Republic Michal Kovac (1993-1997). In 1999, he was awarded a six-month public policy research fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. From 2000-2010, he was the Director for Central and Eastern Europe for the German Marshall Fund of the US-based in Bratislava. Currently, he is a non-resident senior fellow with GMFUS and an external advisor to the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has his own program on international relations and diplomacy on an Internet TV of the Slovak Press Agency. He published several books and numerous articles. Demeš has served on boards of domestic and international non-profit organizations, among others: the European Foundation Center, the European Cultural Foundation, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and the European Endowment for Democracy. He played important role in the EU's civil society development program in Slovakia and democratization efforts in the Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries.
Selected Awards:
The EU-US Democracy and Civil Society Award (1998), the USAID Democracy and Governance Award (1999), a six-month public policy research fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. (1999), Royal Dutch decoration Knight of the Order of Orange
Nassau (2005), Yugoslav Star of First Class (2005), South-East Europe Media Organization Human Rights Award (2009), and the Medal of Honor from the Friends of Slovakia (2011).
The full conference program will be available here: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/creees/visitors/czech-slovak-workshop.
Friday, March 19th, 2021
Iconography and Andy Warhol
The artist, revolutionary, and cult leader of the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol masterfully explored the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture through his legendary depictions of cultural icons while constructing his own public persona and artistic mystique in the most politically-charged, creative, and expressive periods of the 20th century. The son of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants and a devout Byzantine Catholic, Andy Warhol was deeply influenced by a rich cultural heritage in which icons are experienced as doorways to the sacred. Although he convincingly blurred the line between commercial and fine art, his style and technique exposed Warhol’s lifelong connection to a religious culture with which he lived.
Join us for an exploration of Byzantine iconography and Andy Warhol’s art.
REGISTRATION LINK: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkdOqqqD4iGt2a0jH6AAECzA_Gq5PoXLnE
Speakers:
Very Reverend Mitred Archpriest Marek Visnovsky
Vicar General of the Eparchy of Parma
Donald G. Warhola
Vice President, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Liaison, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
Thursday, March 18th, 2021
Explore the University of Pittsburgh's Nationality Rooms
Join Nationality Rooms Tour Coordinator Michael Walter for a brief tour of several Nationality Rooms, examine their decoration and interconnections, and gain insight into the origins of the Nationality Rooms Program at the University of Pittsburgh. This presentation will also share some perspectives on different Pittsburgh communities' association with their background vis-à-vis unique architectural expressions contained on Pitt's campus.
Pitt undergraduate students from Professor Jan Musekamp’s Nationalism class will continue the tour by presenting the Czechoslovak and the Austrian Nationality Rooms. They have worked in small groups, researched the history of those rooms, and analyzed how they fit into the broader concept of nationality rooms in the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. As an additional step, they will present the rooms from the perspective of nationalism studies.
REGISTRATION LINK: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJckf-iqpjgiHNztxhjwHkif1--87n5gpmhJ
CoE: Creating Europe Through Multilingualism
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
This installment of Conversations on Europe is in collaboration with the Center for European Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
The ESC’s 2020-21 theme, Creating Europe, explores both the political, social, cultural, and geographical forces that have given shape to contemporary Europe and also individuals who create and are creative in their daily or artistic expressions of what it means to be European.
This session will be highlighting different approaches to constructing a common European identity. Our interdisciplinary panel of experts will focus on EU language policies and multilingualism within European institutions. Join us for this virtual, interactive discussion.
Audience participation is encouraged.
Panelists:
Katerina Strani, Heriot-Watt University
Nils Ringe, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Michele Gazzola, Ulster University
Karen McAuliffe, University of Birmingham
Moderator:
Jae-Jae Spoon, University of Pittsburgh
Thursday, March 18th, 2021 to Sunday, March 21st, 2021
20th Czech and Slovak Studies Workshop, March 18-21
The Twentieth Annual Czech and Slovak Studies Workshop will be held virtually at the University of Pittsburgh on March 18-21, 2021. This year’s workshop will bring together an international community of researchers, faculty members, and advanced graduate students to exchange their experiences, research results, and ideas on a variety of areas ranging from literature, language, history, and the visual arts.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
MARCH 19
9:00 am (EDT) | 1:00 pm (GMT) | 2:00 pm (CET)
Transatlantic Cooperation in Pandemic Times
Surprisingly enough, the COVID-19 pandemic affected Europe and America in a dramatic manner. Health systems, economies, and social life in the most developed countries have been going through severe tests last year. This keynote lecture will focus on the comparative aspects of the COVID-19 crisis in Europe and the United States, look at its impact on transatlantic relations, and bring examples of cooperation in combating this global pandemic.
SPEAKER:
Pavol Demeš, Senior Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM
Explore our CONFERENCE PROGRAM: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/creees/visitors/czech-slovak-workshop.
REGISTER to attend: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkdu2hpj4uGdG3ZbUonmX4tSawD61rDLL0.
This registration is for the academic portion of the conference, including paper presentations, the keynote address, and networking events. Participation is restricted to faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and the organizers.
Tuesday, March 16th, 2021
UCIS International Career Toolkit Series Presents:A Discussion with Shannon Kimack, FBI Employee
A Discussion with Shannon (Illig) Kimack, Federal Employee with the FBI
Presenter: Shannon Kimack
Location: Zoom Discussion
A Discussion with Shannon (Illig) Kimack, Federal Employee with the FBI
Tuesday, March 16th, 5pm
Zoom Discussion
GSPIA Alumni Shannon (Illig) Kimack (MPIA '08) will discuss her career in federal service. Shannon started her career as a Staff Operations Specialist for the Pittsburgh Division of the FBI and then transitioned to the role of Intelligence Analyst, where she spent ten years working national security matters. She currently serves as a Supervisory Intelligence Analyst for FBI Pittsburgh.
Register:
https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvdO6rqzorH9wHBapvuchy8TtqwRcN2t1Q
JMintheUS: European Union-Russia relations
Presenter: Dr. Dina Moulioukova
Dina Moulioukova is a Lecturer of International Studies and Master of International Administration at the University of Miami where she teaches courses on security. Dina has completed her Ph.D. at the University of Miami with focus on innovative approaches to security studies. Prior to her studies at UM, Dina received her Master of Law degree law (LL.M.) at the University of Cambridge with focus on international law and J.D. from Kazan State University on Russian civil law and international law in Russia. Her current research concentrates on different aspects of Russian foreign policy and security, with special emphasis on Russia’s relations with the European Union, Russia’s energy security and geopolitical competition between the West and rising powers in Africa and Latin America. Dina has also widely published on the topics of her research and is currently working on finalizing her book. In addition to her academic interests, she has been engaged in a number of US Agency for International Development and Library of Congress’ projects on post-Soviet space and has served as an expert in roundtable discussions by Council on Foreign Relations and USSOUTHCOM.
Friday, March 12th, 2021
EU Cultural Policy: How to….
EU Cultural Policy: How to...
Participants in this workshop will gain insights into the shifts in EU cultural policy. They will also develop a foundation for their own analyses of European cultural policy. In different sessions, they will have an overview of culture in the long history of the post-war European movement. They will be introduced to the main mechanisms of cultural policy at the European, national, and regional levels. And they will have an opportunity to engage with experts in the area of policy analysis. The workshop is especially helpful to researchers in the humanities and social sciences who want to understand the mechanisms of cultural production in Europe and the political decision making that determine them.
Morning Events will have unlimited participants.
Afternoon Events will have a limited of 15 participants. Register Early!
Upon completion of the full workshop (all four modules), registered students and faculty will each receive a $150 stipend to purchase research materials or complete some project. In addition, participants in the full-day workshop will receive a Grubhub credit for lunch delivery during the day.
For More Information: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/esc/eu-cultural-policy
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Thursday, March 11th, 2021
JMintheUS: EU Briefing - Orban and Merkel's European People's Party: The End of the Affair?
For some time, the membership of Hungary's nationalist ruling party, Fidesz (led by Viktor Orban), within the more mainstream European People’s Party (EPP) grouping at the European level has been a source of controversy. As Hungary shifted further away from traditional democratic norms, Fidesz membership led to tensions, conflict and criticism from other members of the EPP grouping. Many of these criticisms were directed at German Chancellor Angela Merkel whose continued support of Fidesz membership has been heavily criticized. The tension came to a head this week, when a majority of EPP members voted to adopt rules revisions facilitating expulsion of a member party. As a result, on March 3, Orban announced the ‘voluntary’ departure of Fidesz from the EPP. What does this mean? Will this mark a new chapter in EU-Hungary relations? Join the UF Center for European Studies for a EU briefing with Dr. Daniel Kelemen on the causes and consequences of this weeks’ events.
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RICE &... Series: Risi e Bisi with the European Studies Center
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Join the Pitt Global Hub and European Studies Center (ESC) for another RICE &... event. The ESC will be demonstrating how to prepare risi e bisi, Italian rice and peas, while providing the history and context of this dish.
Register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0ude2upz0uHNWAXP_bL4HlFC3gFg-YnhE9
Wednesday, March 10th, 2021
JMintheUS: The European Democracy Action Plan and Beyond: What Does the Future of EU Disinformation Policy Look Like?
December 2020’s European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP) sets out a number of important principles for the future of EU disinformation policy. EDAP is a wide-ranging document charting an ambitious course far beyond the precedent set by the 2018 Action Plan on Disinformation. However, much of the details still need to be worked out. In this talk, Pamment – who prepared a series of non-papers in support of EDAP and is an adviser to Commissioner Jourova – will discuss current and future challenges in defining and implementing EDAP.
This event is co-sponsored by the Santa Fe World Affairs Forum. We hope that you will join us. The Zoom meeting link will be emailed to you prior to the event after you register.
#JMintheUS
Tuesday, March 9th, 2021
JMintheUS:Race, Human, Rights, and Populism in Poland: A Symposium
In the past thirty years, Poland has been taken as a bellwether for the political direction of East Central Europe. A country whose Solidarity movement, roundtable about a peaceful transition to multi-party rule, and elections in June 1989 helped end decades of Communist rule in the region, it was heralded as one of a small number of countries at the vanguard of an imagined inevitable transition to liberal democracy and a market economy. Indeed, Poland was part of the first wave of post-Communist countries to join the EU, and Poles quickly made themselves present in EU institutions (e.g. Donald Tusk) and the public life of some old member states (especially the UK). Today, however, Poland is being repeatedly rebuked (along with one-time democratic partner in the vanguard, Hungary) for violations of the generally liberal rule of law that define EU democratic norms. This different side of Poland must be explained at least in part with a historical, journalistic/activist, and political view of the ways in which populists have exploited the politics of difference, particularly regarding race, and leveraged deeper cultural ambivalences about pan-European ideas about human rights.
This symposium brings together a set of cross-disciplinary experts prepared to explore this contradiction in Poland as an erstwhile would-be vanguard of liberal democracy and now fulcrum for an illiberal turn. A Poland that is out on the streets, fighting both for women's and LGBT rights and against antisemitism and xenophobia, is still visible. The tradition is not new. Yet the prevailing sense of the arc of Polish history in the past century is that this kind of Poland keeps losing against a different one. For those invested in the contemporary liberal face of Poland, what traditions and new creative demonstrations of civil society offer hope? For those who are more interested in understanding the more conservative turn in Polish identity, an identity that has been visible through the post-Communist period, what is important to understand about the wishes and grievances of those currently pushing back on the wider embrace of EU values by the previous Polish political leadership?
Register here. Please see here for a library research guide on Polish studies.
Moderator:
George Gasyna, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Panelists:
John Connelly, Professor of History, University of California at Berkeley
Konstanty Gebert, Journalist and Activist
Milada Vachudova, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Courtney Blackington, PhD Student in Comparative Politics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
#JMintheUS
Monday, March 8th, 2021
The Battle over Gender Equality in European Politics
In recent years, the EU has adopted far-reaching legislation and policies to support LGBTIQ and women’s rights across a broad range of issues from the gender pay-gap through accession to the Istanbul Convention on violence against women to gender equality in culture and foreign affairs, biodiversity, and digital policy. Yet, several member states have resisted such transnational efforts and have not only removed the word “gender” from official documents and eliminated the field of gender studies in higher education but also rolled back gender rights within their boundaries, sparking sustained protests most notably in Poland and Hungary.
Join us for this interdisciplinary panel of scholars, policy-makers, activists, and politicians to explore the history and the future of gender equality in the EU.
Moderator:
Müge Kökt en Finkel
Assistant Professor, GSPIA
University of Pittsburgh
Speakers:
Laura Albu
Vice President, European Women's Lobby
Lenka Bustikova
Associate Professor, Political Science
Arizona State University
Malgorzata Fidelis
Associate Professor, History
University of Illinois, Chicago
Alice Kuhnke
MEP, European Parliament
Vice Chair, Group of Greens/European Free Alliance
REGISTER HERE: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_d25lT5TKTwSUN_sbWMXxiw
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021
UCIS International Career Toolkit Series Presents:Peace Corps 60th Anniversary Alumni Panel
Location: Zoom Discussion
UCIS International Career Toolkit Series Presents:Peace Corps 60th Anniversary Alumni Panel
Discover the benefits of Peace Corps service from generations of returned Volunteers. Join us during Peace Corps 60th Anniversary Week to learn about the challenging, rewarding and inspirational moments from a panel of returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Ask questions about service and gain tips to guide you through the application process. Narrated by Regional Recruiter, Ryan Stannard. Please note this event will be held online rather than in-person. Please register in order to gain access to the event.
Register:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/events/21_vrs_paneldiscussion_pittpcweek_2021...
UCIS International Career Toolkit Series Presents:LinkedIn Workshop with Alyson Kavalukas
Presenter: Alyson Kavalukas
Location: Zoom Discussion
Mastering LinkedIn for Future Global Affairs Careers
Wednesday, March 3rd, 3:30-4:15pm
Alyson Kavalukas joins us from Career Services to discuss successful generation of a LinkedIn account in seeking positions, learning from professionals and alumni, and increasing networking potential in global affairs. Question and Answer session to follow.
Register:
https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMldemprT4uGNGoE4BN_XfFP4nPb0mGEDi5
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021
Europe's Green Recovery
Presenter: Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for the Green Deal
The European Green Deal is the EU's ambitious new growth strategy that aims to transform Europe into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where no person and no place is left behind. As Executive Vice-President, Frans Timmermans leads the European Commission's work on the European Green Deal and its first European Climate Law to enshrine a 2050 climate-neutrality target into EU law. Join us for this virtual event featuring remarks by Mr. Timmermans followed by discussion.
Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, is leading the European Commission's efforts on the European Green Deal. In this talk, Frans Timmermans will discuss what is happening with the European Green Deal and the path forward for a greener Europe.
This event is a part of Jean Monnet in the US event series and the European Studies Center's Year of Creating Europe.
Friday, February 26th, 2021
'It's a Yiddish Theatre, You Know?' The Jewish Amateur Art Collectives of Soviet & Post-Soviet Lithuania, 1956-1995
Jewish Studies Work in Progress Colloquium:
Emma Squire is a doctoral candidate in the Theatre Arts Department. She is currently working on her pioneering dissertation on the Yiddish Theatre in Soviet and Post-Soviet Lithuania. Through archival research in Vilnius, and interviews with spectators and theater artists, her project explores the repertoire, challenges, and cultural impact of the Jewish Folk Theatre in communist times.
Friday, February 26th, 2021 to Saturday, February 27th, 2021
Undergraduate Model European Union
Presenter: Alexandre Polack
Thursday, February 25th, 2021
JMintheUS: Republican Realism and Ideology in EU Politics
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021
JMintheUS: The EU Policy on Digitization (of Art Collections)
The EU policy on Digitization (of Art Collections) with Antoinette Maget Dominice (Ludwig Maximillian University), Ewa Manikowska (Institute of Art Polish Academy of Sciences), Arianna Traviglia (Center for Cultural Heritage Technology University ca'Foscari)
Moderator: Francesca Fiorentini, University of Trieste
This panel will illustrate the technologies available for Cultural Heritage and assess both their potential and risks within the European Union policy framework in this sector.
#JMintheUS
Sunday, February 21st, 2021
ESCape Into a Book: Gingerbread
Join the European Studies Center at Pitt's virtual book club, exploring recent works by European authors. We will be reading "Gingerbread" by Helen Oyeyemi.
Discussion dates at February 16 and February 20. The deadline to RSVP is Thursday, January 7, 2021. A free copy of the book is available to the first 50 registrants who request one. The event is open to ALL.
RSVP at https://forms.gle/uTRwaCSdDVpd9Lir9
Friday, February 19th, 2021
UCIS International Career Toolkit Series Presents:HealTogether CIC
Time: 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Presenter: Anabelle Hoffman, Founder & Director, HealTogether CIC
Location: Zoom Discussion
HealTogether CIC is a community enterprise organization with a vision for improving access for mental health care services for the Somali community in England and Wales. Anabelle joins us from the UK to discuss starting her own organization to help fellow Somalis in her community after a lockdown and a furlough. She spent 15 years in HR and Talent Acquisition before actualizing her dream during Covid-19.
Thursday, February 18th, 2021
CoE: Creating Europe Through the Built Environment
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
The ESC’s 2020-21 theme, Creating Europe, explores both the political, social, cultural, and geographical forces that have given shape to contemporary Europe and also individuals who create and are creative in their daily or artistic expressions of what it means to be European.
In this second installment of our 'Creating Europe through' series, the focus will be on the built environment. Our panelists will discuss the following: How does the architecture of EU institutional buildings reflect or express European ideas or identity? Does EU funding for infrastructure projects throughout Europe promote a European identity among EU citizens? And how does the EU work to integrate buildings into the circular economy and create a greener Europe?
Tuesday, February 16th, 2021
ESCape Into a Book: Gingerbread
Join the European Studies Center at Pitt's virtual book club, exploring recent works by European authors. We will be reading "Gingerbread" by Helen Oyeyemi.
Discussion dates at February 16 and February 20. The deadline to RSVP is Thursday, January 7, 2021. A free copy of the book is available to the first 50 registrants who request one. The event is open to ALL.
RSVP at https://forms.gle/uTRwaCSdDVpd9Lir9
Thursday, February 11th, 2021
‘Inescapable Liabilities’: Locating Algeria in European Integration’s History
Time: 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
JMEUCE Lecture Series:
This talk places empire and decolonization at the heart of the history of European integration. When French officials came to the negotiating table to help found the European Economic Community (EEC), their sovereignty over Algeria was a paramount concern. As a result, they demanded that their European collaborators agree to name Algeria in the treaty establishing the EEC. This held unintended consequences before and after Algeria’s independence. Algeria’s exit from Europe proved plodding and uneven, demonstrating both the range of possibilities for what the shape of integrated Europe might have been and also the slow process of decolonization.
Megan Brown
Department of History, Swarthmore University
Tuesday, February 9th, 2021
On Intergenerational Queer Kinship and the Frail Body of August von Platen
August von Platen’s (1796–1835) name appears regularly in queer German print culture around 1900. Following the highly advertised publication of the famed poet’s diaries in 1896 and then in 1900, sexologists and admirers took up the culture of reading his work for traces of the queer life he led. This talk explores one such project: Xavier Mayne’s The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life (1910), which includes an extensive biography of Platen. This talk will examine how the crafting of Platen’s body in this text—an embodiment through words—played a central role in imagining an ideal queerness venerated by Mayne and much of the writing about Platen around 1900.
Ervin Malakaj is Assistant Professor of German Studies at the University of British Columbia. His scholarship focuses on German media studies, queer studies, and critical university studies. He is the co-editor with Regine Criser of Diversity and Decolonization in German Studies (2020, Palgrave)
STUDENT CAPSTONE PRESENTATIONS 4:00PM EST
Capstone Senior Seminar Research Projects: Chloe Abele, Meghan Fanning, Samantha Good, Anna Hudson, Jacob Kuzy, Ingrid Miller, Max Nowalk, Lauren Towner, Anne Marie Yurik
Thursday, February 4th, 2021
Brexit Update with Dr. Anand Menon
In January, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. In this discussion, Anand Menon, an expert on the European Union, will talk about what this means for the future of the European Union, the ramifications for the United Kingdom, and what may happen next.
#JMintheUS
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021
EU Trilogues: Challenges for Democracy? (part of the EU Democracy Forum series)
Presenter: Justin Greenwood
EU DEMOCRACY FORUM – IMAGINE THE FUTURE
Democracy cannot be taken for granted -- not in Europe, not anywhere. With this series of talks by experts on European politics and society we want to encourage discussion about the future of democracy in the European Union, its member states, and the neighborhood. As the EU Commission launches its Conference on the Future of Europe in 2021, we invite you to imagine this future with us. Our contributors will reflect on the EU’s achievements and challenges. We will hear their reflections on how to strengthen and expand democratic processes and institutions, both in Brussels and in Europe more broadly.
Thursday, January 28th, 2021 to Thursday, February 4th, 2021
MEET EU Short Film Festival
Time: 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Inspired by the European Year of Rail, which shines a light on one of the most sustainable, innovative, and safest modes of transportation, and acknowledging the challenges we have all faced during the pandemic in traveling and forging new connections, the inaugural MEET EU Short Film Competition for U.S. Youth asks young people to create a short film (documentary or non-documentary) responding to the theme “Transatlantic Connections”. The theme is intentionally broad and entrants are encouraged to be creative in how they interpret it.
MEET EU: Making Encounters, Engaging Transatlanticists, is a grant generously funded by the European Union through the European Union Delegation to the US in Washington, DC. The goals of this grant are to shine a light on the EU and the importance of the transatlantic relationship through the eyes of young Americans. We encourage entrants to think creatively to give us your perspective on the European-American relationship, similarities and differences between countries, and why this relationship matters.
Thursday, January 28th, 2021
CoE: Creating Europe Through Crises
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Presenter: Catherine De Vries, Bocconi University, Milan Sara Goodman, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva R. Daniel Keleman, Rutgets University Matthias Matthijs, Johns Hopkins University
The ESC’s 2020-21 theme, Creating Europe, explores both the political, social, cultural, and geographical forces that have given shape to contemporary Europe and also individuals who create and are creative in their daily or artistic expressions of what it means to be European.
For this first installment, the ESC and the European Union Studies Association (EUSA) will collaborate to explore how several crises – including financial, Brexit, migration, democratic backsliding, and public
health – have shaped the European Union over
the past decade.
Audience participation is encouraged.
Panelists:
Catherine De Vries, Bocconi University, Milan
Sara Goodman, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
R. Daniel Keleman, Rutgets University
Matthias Matthijs, Johns Hopkins University
Reinventing Leadership in the Transatlantic Relationship
Presenter: Sam Nunn, James F. Collins, Federica Mogherini, and Alasdair Young
The newly inaugurated U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to reinvent the transatlantic relationship early in his presidency, markedly shifting the relationship established by the previous administration. What will an invigorated alliance look like? What are the specific challenges and opportunities that Russia poses to this alliance? How can the United States navigate these shoals in a manner that can reinvigorate U.S.-EU partnership?
Join us for a program featuring Sam Nunn, James F. Collins, Federica Mogherini, and Alasdair Young on the future of transatlantic relations.
#JMintheUS
Wednesday, January 27th, 2021
Walter Memorial Lecture with Federica Mogherini
Tuesday, January 26th, 2021
A Virtual Discussion with UK Ambassador Dame Karen Pierce
The European Union and Youth Employment
As shown by earlier recessions, youth employment is more sensitive to the business cycle than adult employment and the economic recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to bring back dramatically high youth unemployment and NEET rates (young people who are not in education, employment or training). To further support an inclusive economic recovery, school to work transitions in the changing world of work, and ensure that young people make the most of the opportunities stemming from digital, resilient and green transitions, the European Union had developed programs and initiatives along with funding sources to address these needs.
For example, The Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) exclusively supports NEETs, including the long-term unemployed or those not registered as jobseekers. It ensures that in parts of Europe where the challenges are most acute, young people can receive targeted support. Typically, the YEI funds the provision of apprenticeships, traineeships, job placements and further education leading to a qualification.
Join us to hear Birgit Daiber discuss the various youth programs in Europe and how they are funded. The Zoom meeting link will be emailed to you prior to the event.
Thursday, January 21st, 2021 to Friday, January 22nd, 2021
Pitt-Newcastle Place-Based Conference
Join the University of Pittsburgh and Newcastle University for a virtual conference: The Role of Universities in Sustainable, Just and Inclusive Cities on January 21st and January 22nd , 2021.
Post-industrial cities are crucibles of reinvention and innovation. Those that have successfully navigated the sunsetting of industrial production have creatively reoriented to intellectual technology, advanced manufacturing, business services, and life science innovations. And yet, the challenges that followed industrial decline—loss of population, unemployment, and destructive urban redevelopment strategies—continue to reverberate.
As the founding members of the International Place-Based University Network, Newcastle University and the University of Pittsburgh are hosting this conference. The goal is to share best practices for community and civic engagement as well as to explore potential international collaborations for academically based community engagement.
To view the full schedule of events and to register, visit: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/esc/events/international-place-based-universit...
Wednesday, January 13th, 2021
FLAS Fellowship Info Session
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
The Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship program is a prestigious and competitive award that allows select Pitt undergraduate and graduate students to devote full time attention to their chosen modern foreign language and area studies specialty. There are separate competitions for the Academic Year FLAS Fellowship and the Summer FLAS Fellowship.
Attend this info session with representatives from the European Studies Center, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and the Asian Studies Center to learn more about the requirements and how to submit a strong application.
Register here: https://bit.ly/FLAS-info-session-2021
Thursday, December 17th, 2020
Global Issues Through Literature: “Nowhere Boy” by Katherine Marsh
Global Issues Through Literature
Location: Virtual - Register Online!
Cost: Free and Open to the Public
This reading group for educators explores literary texts from a global perspective. Content specialists present the work and its context, and together we brainstorm innovative pedagogical practices for incorporating the text and its themes into the curriculum. Sessions this year will take place virtually on Thursday evenings from 5-7:30 PM. Books and Act 48 credit are provided.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1gb70m6FeBhO3HVF7Hx6eIWVx1lr7vVnqsxIYuCD...
Global Issues Through Literature"Nowhere Boy" by Katherine Marsh
Presenter: Mame-Fatou Niang, Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University
Location: virtual - Register Online!
This reading group for K-16 educators explores literary texts from a global perspective. Content specialists present the work and its context, and together we brainstorm innovative pedagogical practices for incorporating the text and its themes into the curriculum. Sessions this year will take place virtually on Thursday evenings from 5-8 PM. Books and Act 48 credit are provided. This reading group is co-sponsored with Pitt's European Studies Center and led by Mame-Fatou Niang, Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University.
Tuesday, December 15th, 2020
Technology and Cybersecurity
Presenter: Elena Chernenko, Michael Poznansky, Ashar Neyaz, Sundar Krishnan, Beth Schwanke
Location: Online via Zoom
For Year 3 of our faculty development workshops for community colleges and minority-serving institutions, we are offering a series of monthly webinars focused on technology. The third of the webinars will examine Technology and Cybersecurity specifically addressing the challenges of protecting data against international threats.
Register here
Thursday, December 10th, 2020
ESCape Into a Book: Go, Went, Gone
Join the European Studies Center at Pitt for a Virtual Book Club to explore recent works by European authors. Our first book is Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck. Discussion dates are December 6 and December 10. Those who RSVP by 10/22 can receive a FREE book and the event is open to ALL.
RSVP at https://forms.gle/EqVJieX1XgVvWd1i7
Sunday, December 6th, 2020
ESCape Into a Book: Go, Went, Gone
Join the European Studies Center at Pitt for a Virtual Book Club to explore recent works by European authors. Our first book is Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck. Discussion dates are December 6 and December 10. Those who RSVP by 10/22 can receive a FREE book and the event is open to ALL.
RSVP at https://forms.gle/EqVJieX1XgVvWd1i7
Friday, December 4th, 2020
High School Model European Union
The High School Model European Union is an annual event for high school students, with this year's simulation taking place virtually via Microsoft Teams. The goal of the Model EU is to give high school students the opportunity to learn about the workings of the European Union through a hands-on simulation of a meeting of the European Council. Playing the role of presidents and prime ministers, students spend a day engaged in intense negotiations over current issues impacting the EU.
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Cost: $10/student
More information and Registration: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/esc/outreach/students/model-eu
Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
Four Evenings Discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Water Dancer
Four Evenings -- Global Literary Encounters
Presenter: Dr. William Scott, Associate Professor in the Department of English Literature.
Location: Virtual, see website to join!
Cost: Free and Open to the Public w/ registration
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1WJqjaw22TlwmRpqA62bleCd3o0-bda84vGt_v7c...
The conversation will be led by Dr. William Scott, Associate Professor in the Department of English Literature.
CoE: The Scandinavian Model: Social Cohesion, Cultural Diversity, and Trust in Institutions in Northern Europe
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
As part of the Year of Creating Europe, previous sessions have focused on different attempts to create unity through diversity across Europe. In this session, the focus is on Scandinavia. Our panel of experts discuss how this region created social cohesion and costs and benefits that come with it. In its efforts to make a nation that is diverse but coalesces, how has Scandinavia been able to create trust in it's institutions?
Register Here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XYToCOtmTFS77ljMKleb7Q
Thursday, November 19th, 2020
CoE: Cementing the Boundaries of Frenchness: Race/Ethnicity and Belonging in a Non-Color-Blind French Republic
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
France is often portrayed as a case of color-blind civic ‘assimilation’ despite a shift to ‘integration’ since the 1980s. However, the creation of institutions such as the High Council for Integration (1989-2013) and the first ever census-based survey on the assimilation of immigrants and their France-born children (Mobilité géographique et insertion sociale, Tribalat 1993) signaled starting from the 1990s the foregrounding of cultural differentiation in public life and the promotion of ethnic origin as a framework and primary principle of classification (Bertaux 2016:1496). In this process, integration came to be perceived as a one-way ticket for ‘ethnic Others of foreign descent’ to embrace the cultural values and institutions of a purportedly homogeneous ‘non-ethnic’ core of Français de souche (‘French of French stock’). Papers in this panel argue that race/ethnic relations in France today have inherited this ideology. They show that audible characteristics of local French, a shared linguistic heritage in Marseilles, are dismissed in the speech of working-class youth (Evers), historically attested pronunciation features are recast as multiethnic innovations in working-class Parisian French (Fagyal), years of ‘banlieue literature’ addressing the themes of race and citizenship have suffered from distorted representations in the media (Horvath), and entire segments of the French population now consider themselves Citizen Outsiders for whom the cultural characteristics of the ‘uniform whiteness’ of the Français de souche remain largely alien (Beaman). The panel casts light on the utopia of a color-blind French Republic that, in its efforts at treating citizens equally before the law, makes it impossible for them to belong.
Panelists:
Jean Beaman, University of California Santa-Barbara
Cécile Evers Cecile, Pomona College
Zsuzsanna Fagyal , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Christina Horvath, University of Bath
Register Here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XG-B5qdrTrWrrIS09NaG2A
Wednesday, November 18th, 2020
The EU's Covid Recovery Plan: Solution for a Worldwide Just Clean Energy Transition. A panel discussion with EU Delegates.
Around the world, countries are undertaking fiscal stimulus responses in order to accelerate their recovery from COVID-19. On 21 July 2020, EU leaders agreed to a €1,824.3 trillion (ca $2 trillion) package which includes a €1,074.3 billion budget for the next seven years and a major stimulus package of €750 billion. The Next Generation EU (NGEU) stimulus package will help to rebuild and to support investment in green and digital transitions. Climate action is at the forefront of this historic agreement with a target of 30% of total expenditures going towards efforts to reach EU climate neutrality by 2050. A part of the package/agreement is the €150 billion Just Transition Mechanism (JTM). By targeting support to the most affected regions, the JTM program aims to guarantee that the EU’s “climate-neutral economy happens in a fair way, leaving no one behind.”
The EU also seeks to provide worldwide impact by serving as a global leader on reaching science-based targets of the Paris Agreement and by promoting implementation of ambitious environmental, energy, and climate policies with partner countries. Last year the EU announced the European Green Deal - Europe's new growth strategy for achieving climate neutrality by mid-century. Most recently the European Commission proposed to increase the 2030 target to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% in the next decade, compared to 1990 levels. As a part of the EU's climate neutrality agenda, innovative actions were proposed on clean hydrogen economy, methane emissions reduction, energy efficiency in the building sector, and offshore wind deployment.
What does Europe's drive for climate neutrality mean for the transatlantic cooperation? How can the EU and the next U.S. Administration work together towards a shared transatlantic agenda?
Event Registration:https://www.cvent.com/d/b7qrr4
#JMintheUS
Tuesday, November 17th, 2020
BETH Webinar Series: Technology in the Time of COVID-19
Presenter: Dr. June Park, Dr. Dev Lewis, Jared Kohler
Location: via Zoom online
Internationalize your career-focused courses with the BETH (Business, Energy, Technology, and Health) series. For year 3 of our faculty development workshops for community colleges and minority-serving institutions, the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh is offering a series of monthly webinars focused on technology. Our second webinar will examine Technology in the Time of COVID, specifically addressing international responses to the pandemic regarding efforts to mitigate community spread through contact-tracing.
Presenters are:
Dr. June Park, 2020-2021 East Asia Voices Initiative Fellow, East Asia National Resource Center, Elliot School of International Affairs, The George Washington University.
Dr. Dev Lewis, Fellow and Program Lead at Digital Asia Hub
Jared Kohler, Systems Engineer, Carnegie Mellon University CREATE Lab
Register here
An Update on EU-Iran Relations
Presenter: Shireen Hunter, Eldar Mamedov, Mohammad Homayounvash, Eric Lob
The EU's relations with Iran have strengthened since the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. These relations have become more important now, as the current US administration is determined to further undermine the agreement by pressing the UN to restore economic sanctions and extend the arms embargo against Iran. The EU’s disagreement with the US position has brought the nuclear non-proliferation regime, the maintenance of international agreements, and the future of European relations with the US and Iran at a crossroads. This panel will explore these topics and provide an update on the current state of EU-Iran relations after the US elections.
Panelists
Shireen Hunter, Ph.D., Honorary Fellow, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), Georgetown University
Eldar Mamedov, Political Advisor European Parliament
Mohammad Homayounvash, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and Education at Miami-Dade College; Lecturer, Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs at FIU, and Religious Studies Department at the University of Miami
Eric Lob, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Politics & International Relations, Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs, FIU
Moderator: Markus Thiel, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Politics & International Relations, Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs; Director, Miami-Florida Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, FIU
Event Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-an-update-on-eu-iran-relations-tick...
Sunday, November 15th, 2020
UCIS International Career Toolkit Series Presents:A Discussion with Elizabeth Echevarria, Founder/CEO - Living in Liberty
Location: Zoom Discussion
Elizabeth Echevarria, Founder and CEO of Living in Liberty discusses her decision to start the organization to combat human trafficking and the work the organization does to aid women and children in Pittsburgh. Services, funding, volunteering, employees, and outreach are all part of the organization's efforts.
November 15th, 2020
6:30-7:30pm
Zoom Discussion
Zoom Link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9238996364?pwd=UFMrTUlQN1QxazFFdmNsenVIdnI5UT09
Friday, November 13th, 2020
Public Art + Dissent: Art, Protest and Public Spaces Mini-Course - Day 3
Mini-Course for K-12 Educators
Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: Free and Open to the Public
Throughout our history, art and artists have resisted oppression, violence, injustice, and inequality. Some of the world’s most interesting art is on the streets and easily accessible to all. In this workshop we will discuss how protest art uses public space to engage in dialogue between the artist and the public. At an unprecedented moment in geopolitics, the work of public artists amplifies activism, resistance, and solidarity. Artists give context and vision to broad social movements, supporting those who have been marginalized and who need justice. Artists around the world question what is and why that transcends national boundaries and politics . We will examine works of Ai Wei Wei, Keith Herring, murals from Northern Ireland, to the Black Lives movement.
Friday, November 13
6:00 - 8:30 pm (Eastern Time)
Jerome 'Chu' Charles: "Waking Up With 'Chu' - My Road to the Black Lives Matter Movement"
Michael-Ann Cerniglia: "Teacher led session: Creative Resistance Case Studies for the K-12 Classroom"
To learn more, please visit our website: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/ncta/
Register here!
Translating Emotion: A Discussion with Sam Taylor
Sam Taylor is a British novelist and literary translator who now lives in the United States. He has translated novels by Maylis de Kerangal, Leïla Slimani and Clémentine Beauvais (among others), as well as Riad Sattouf’s graphic novel The Arab of the Future. On 13 November 2020, Sam Taylor will talk about his translation of Antoine Leiris’ You Will Not Have My Hate (2016) and the upcoming translation of Leiris’ La vie, après. He will describe the links between translation and literary creation, and talk about career possibilities in translation and publishing.
Contact Pr. Kaliane Ung (khu3@pitt.edu) for the Zoom link.
Thursday, November 12th, 2020
Virtual Briefing: The Transatlantic Relationship After the Elections
Join us for a roundtable discussion of the state of the transatlantic relationship in the wake of the U.S. Presidential Elections. Featuring: Dr. James Goldgeier, American University (NATO and security), Mr. Ignacio Garcia-Bercero, DG Trade (former TTIP chief negotiator), Dr. Mai’a Cross, Northeastern University (Europe and the Politics of Crisis). Moderated by Steven Sokol (American Council on Germany).
Hosted by the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh, the Center for Transatlantic Studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Transatlantic Policy Center at American University. This event is part of the #JMintheUS event series, an initiative of Jean Monnet Centers in the U.S.
https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LvStS_L3RTWaAYZwgEdx3w
