Katja Wezel of the History Department and Steve Lund of the ESC will present an overview of the DAAD family of resources and scholarships, then focus specifically on the graduate level Study Scholarship (that supports graduate study in Germany) and Research Awards (which support post-baccalaureate research in Germany). Contact Steve Lund at slund@pitt.edu if you have any questions.

Dr. Musialkowska and Dr. Talaga, the 2016 ESC and ULS Summer Research Scholars, will be presenting an update on their research in Pitt’s Barbara Sloan EU Depository Collection. Dr. Musialkowska’s research focuses on EU-Latin America dialogue on territorially-oriented development policies. Dr. Talaga’s research focuses on the evolution of legal character of decisions on state aid in the European Union. Both of this year’s summer scholars have come to Pitt from Poznan University in Poland. The Summer Research Scholars Program is a joint initiative by the ESC and the University Library System to award travel grants to two scholars per year working on topics relevant to European integration and for whom access to the unique archival collections housed at the University of Pittsburgh would prove beneficial. Dr. Musialkowska and Dr. Talaga were selected as Summer Research Scholars for a four week visit to Pitt and this session provides staff, faculty, and students with an opportunity to see how their research is progressing to date.

K-12 French Teachers participated in a week-long language pedagogy program at the University of Pittsburgh campus. Exploring the theme of "La France, La Francophonie, et la 'clash' des civilisations" during morning sessions, teachers also developed Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) in afternoon sessions to improve assessment and instruction in the classroom.

On June 23rd, voters in the UK went to the polls and voted by a slim margin to leave the EU. The political and economic repercussions were immediate. When will the dust settle? And what will Europe - and the UK - look like when it does?
Log in from your home or office to get expert analysis of the vote and its implications for Europe and the U.S.

Presenters:
Dr. Jae-Jae Spoon, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Tim Oliver, Dahrendorf Fellow on Europe-North America Relations, London School of Economics
Dr. Sean Ehrlich, Associate Professor of Political Science, Florida State University

Angelo Golia, a doctoral candidate at the University of Naples II in Italy, will speak on the subject of “Transnational Enterprises from a Constitutional Law Perspective.” Angelo is writing his PhD dissertation on “The Responsibility of Transnational Enterprises for Human Rights Violations: A Comparative Perspective.” He received his master’s degree in law from the University of Naples II in 2013. He has been a stagiaire at the Institute des Hautes Etudes sur la Justice in Paris, France, and is a member of the Clinique Doctorale de droit international des droits in Aix-en-Provence ,France. He will be in residence with CILE from February 2016 through June 2016.

Please RSVP for sandwiches, chips and soft drinks.

Eduard Fosch Villaronga, a doctoral candidate at the University of Bologna in Italy, will speak on the subject of “The Legal Aspects of Personal Care Robots.” Eduard is writing his PhD dissertation on the subject of “Legal and Ethical Challenges for Non-Medical Personal Care Robots.” His research while in residence with us will include a comparative exploration of laws and regulation regarding robotics. He received his bachelor’s degree in law from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2012, a joint LL.M from the Universite de Toulouse I and the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2012, and an MA in Security, Governance and IT Law from the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2013. He will be in residence with CILE from March 2016 through September 2016.

Please RSVP for sandwiches, chips and soft drinks.

Participate in a classroom simulation that relives negotiations on air pollution and acid rain among European nations between 1979-1989.

The international simulation "Acid Rain in the European Environment" incorporates social studies, chemistry, and English content. Students engage in analyzing primary source documents as well as scientific data and graphs.

As a participant in this workshop, you'll learn about the science behind acid rain while understanding the historical context of the negotiations to take back to your classroom. Social studies, science, math and language arts teachers are strongly encouraged to register!

Workshop details:
-Breakfast and lunch will be served
-Parking will be provided
-Teachers will earn Act 48 hours
-Participants will be free classroom resources and materials

Please visit http://tinyurl.com/RTTPworkshop to register now!

Eugenie Syx, a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Law of KU Leuven, Belgium, will speak on the subject of “Advertising of pharmaceuticals. A brief comparison between US and EU rules.” Eugenie is writing her PhD dissertation on the subject of “Commercial Practices Regarding the Sale of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices to the Health Consumer.” She received her bachelor’s degree in law from the Universidad del Norte de Santo Tomas de Aquino in Argentina, and her Masters in Law from MU Leuven. Her publications include The Case of the Electronic Cigarette in the EU, 21 Eur. J. Health L. 161 (2014). She will be in residence with CILE during May 2016.

Please RSVP for sandwiches, chips and soft drinks.

On May 7, 2016 the European Studies Center at Pitt's University Center for International Studies will be hosting its first ever Europe Day Festival! The festival, which will run from 12:00 PM – 7:30 PM in and around Posvar Hall (230 S. Bouquet Street), will be a celebration of European culture, cuisine, and heritage. Local artisans and vendors will create a dynamic marketplace and performances of regional song and dance will be presented on the main stage. Artistic demonstrations, music and children’s activities will take place throughout the day.

For more information please visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/eurofest.

The emergence of international capitalism depended on the creation of a highly mobile working class that built, loaded, and sailed the ships that connected the globe. These ships inaugurated the Atlantic slave trade and other labor migrations, making possible new regimes of accumulation and labor based in port cities, dynamic centers of power that linked the slave labor of colonial plantations to Europe and other parts of the world. The laborers of port cities – sailors, indentured servants, and slaves, workers free and unfree – are the subjects of this workshop.

Historians have long treated slave labor and free labor as mutually exclusive ideal types, belonging to separate historical narratives. Recent work has begun to challenge this view, yet research on the connections between free and unfree workers remains limited. Port cities are the perfect setting in which to explore a new, broader, more inclusive labor history for the period 1700-1850.

Broad international treaties attempting to tackle climate change have had limited effects at best, leading a handful of countries and jurisdictions to experiment with alternative strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This conference will study (1) the effectiveness of these various strategies, (2) whether they are politically viable, and (3) whether they can be scaled up. Academics and practitioners will compare and contrast experiences in both Europe and the United States in the hopes of designing more effective climate policy on both sides of the Atlantic.

The aim of the conference is to study (1) the effectiveness of these various strategies, (2) whether they are politically viable in the long run, and (3) whether they can be scaled up. Academic researchers and practitioners will present, and contrast the experiences in Europe and the United States.
 
The Keynote address will be given by Gernot Wagner, Senior Economist at the Environmental Defense Fund, co-author of Climate Shock, which was short-listed by the Financial Times as book of the year.
 
View the tentative program at
http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/esc/system/files/resources/documents/Conference....

Register to attend at
http://tinyurl.com/ESCTransatlantic

This Institute offers area secondary school French teachers an opportunity to maintain or improve their language skills, to develop deeper understanding of French culture and its global influence, and to share relevant teaching strategies. The French Immersion Institute hosts three Saturday workshops through the year and an intensive, weeklong workshop beginning in the summer of 2016.

This June citizens in the United Kingdom will vote on that country’s place in Europe. At a time of rising Euroscepticism there and across Europe, Great Britain will decide if it is better off facing the range of challenges to the European project—economic growth, migration, terrorism, conflict on its borders—by itself or as part of the EU. The results of the referendum will have implications for the entire UK (including Northern Ireland and Scotland), for the economic and political integrity of the EU, and for Great Britain’s ties with key continental countries and with the US. Panelists will address these aspects and many others and will respond to each other and to questions posed by the audience. To join the Conversation and for more information, please contact Kate Bowersox at kal68@pitt.edu.

Panelists:
Michelle Egan, Professor, School of International Service, American University
Amelia Hadfield, Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign Affairs, Canterbury Christ Church University
Tim Oliver, Dahrendorf Fellow on Europe-North American Relations, London School of Economics
Alan Sked, Professor Emeritus of International History, London School of Economics (founder and former member of UK Independence Party)

Carol Perez, a high-level State Department official, will visit Pittsburgh to promote the many ways Americans can conduct foreign policy and serve their country abroad. Students of Less-Commonly-Taught Languages are uniquely qualified for a career with the State Department, as they have already demonstrated their ability to adapt to other cultures and communicate with people from different backgrounds. Also, there is a high demand in the U.S. Government for speakers of Persian, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu, Hindi, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, and other difficult or less well known languages. If you would like to hear more about how to embark on a career with the State Department or secure a Critical Language Scholarship, please join Carol Perez and her State Department colleagues on April 14 for an informal conversation.

“Safe Harbor” is gone, replaced by a new US-EU Privacy Shield agreement. What does this means for US businesses and protection of personal data? Find out from this Virtual Briefing by logging in from your home or office at noon on Tuesday, April 12, 2016.

Presenters:
Ted Dean, US Department of Commerce, Chief Negotiator of US-EU Privacy Shield
Pierluigi Perri, University of Milan, Specialist in Advance Computer Law
David Thaw, University of Pittsburgh, Specialist in Law and Information

For information on how to connect and to register: http://tinyurl.com/gllxtrr.
Cost: $15

The University Center for International Studies will host a Teacher Forum on Internationalizing the K-12 Classroom on Saturday, April 9, 2016 at the William Pitt Union on the University of Pittsburgh’s Oakland campus.

The forum will provide educators, either as an individual participant or as a team of two, with the opportunity to present a project or lesson with a regional or global focus that they have used in the classroom. The project or lesson should focus on one or more of the following items: build understanding and awareness of other cultures, analyze multiple perspectives, communicate effectively across diverse groups, or take action on an international or global issue. Teams consisting of an in-service and a pre-service teacher are particularly encouraged to attend.

Educators will participate in a carousel poster presentation competition in the morning session. During this time educators will have the opportunity to learn from one another’s lessons, while also engaging in a judged competition. Each team will be allowed two to three minutes to present their lesson to a set of judges.

Following the morning presentations, educators will participate in a number of workshops that focus on internationalizing the K-12 classroom led by University of Pittsburgh faculty as well as highly qualified teachers from the region.

At the end of the day, all participants will gather together for the awards ceremony. One winner will be selected from each division – elementary, middle, and high school. Each winner will be awarded $500.00.

This lecture aims to offer a broader and more nuanced perspective on what has been widely referred to as Europe’s “refugee crisis.” With a focus on Germany, the lecture will reflect on the national and international events and changes that occurred between 2011 and the present as a means of rethinking this crisis as both a humanitarian crisis and an example of humanitarianism in crisis.

Russia and Hungary have developed very different economies and political systems in the process of postcommunist transition. Nevertheless, a certain convergence takes place in recent years. Vladimir Putin's regime in Russia and Viktor Orban's regime in Hungary combine authoritarianism, national populism, neoliberal reforms and certain economic measures that go beyond neoliberalism. One way to understand this convergence is to study two distinct types of capitalism that emerged in Russia and in Hungary, their contradictions and the role of the state. Ultimately, the authoritarian consolidation in both countries is rooted in the state-class relations. Both regimes have taken steps that go beyond the neoliberal playbook and adopted the policy of economic nationalism. Nevertheless, in both countries this policy is combined with neoliberal reforms in the social sphere. The presentation examines the past, the present and the future of both regimes.

The Europe: East and West Undergraduate Research Symposium is an annual event 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 other countries of the former Soviet Union. Selected participants give 10- to 15-minute presentations based on their research to panels of faculty and graduate students. The presentations are open to the public.

In collaboration with the St. Louis non-profit “Italian Film Festival USA,” we are pleased to announce the fourth edition of our three-week-long festival of contemporary, Pittsburgh-premiere Italian films; our festival begins next week, on Friday, April 1 with Francesca Archibugi’s Il nome del figlio. This year, all screenings will be on Pitt’s Oakland campus: the April 2, 8, 14, 15, and 16 screenings will be held at the Frick Fine Arts auditorium, while the April 7 screening will be held in the Cathedral of Learning, in G-24. All screenings will take place at 7pm, and are free and open to the public. The full schedule, with links to film synopses and a printable PDF flyer, is available here: www.italianfilmfests.org/pittsburgh.

When PEGIDA began its weekly protest marches in October 2014, many were blindsided by its steady outpouring of support. From a mere 350 followers on October 25, 2014, the numbers grew to between 17,000 and 25,000 on January 12, 2015. This talk analyzes the rhetoric and ideological affinities of PEGIDA with other right populist groups, both past and present. Their biases rely on chauvinistic nationalism and anti-government and anti-journalist stances. Slogans like “lying press” and “government abuse” create disdain for democratic mechanisms and open the door to violence and conspiracy theories. A close look at PEGIDA’s and AfD’s ideological backers (Udo Ulfkotte, Götz Kubitschek, and Tanja Festerling) reveals the group’s violent actionism despite its claim to represent mainstream citizens. Employing Jacques de St. Victor’s concept of anti-politics, Professor Druxes analyzes how PEGIDA instrumentalizes mistrust in governmental institutions to create a digital simulacrum of political participation.

This lecture discusses the various forms of isolation and stigmatization experienced by Jewish communities in Germany in the postwar period and seeks to explore the process of redefining Jewish existence in “the land of the perpetrators.” Competing and conflicting German, Jewish, and international conceptions of Jewish life in Germany that were voiced during the early postwar years play an important role in understanding the process of development within individual Jewish communities in the Federal Republic and the position that German-Jewish organizations occupy within the German as well as the Jewish environment today.

For the European Studies Center's second installment of Conversations on Teaching Europe, we will connect experts and local K-12 teachers via videoconference to discuss strategies and techniques that infuse information about European cultures, people and history as well as contemporary issues into curricula. For this particular webinar, we will discuss the use of European art and architecture in classroom lessons with a faculty expert and two local K-12 teachers.

Greece is at a critical crossroads as a result of the economic and refugee crises. Join us for an interactive video conversation dealing with the increasingly precarious economic, political, and psychological relationship between the EU and one of its most stressed members. Audience participation is encouraged. For more information or to participate remotely, contact kal68@pitt.edu.

Panelists:

Dr. Despina Alexiadou, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Panagiota Manoli, Assistant Professor of Political Economy of International Relations, University of the Aegean

Dr. Rachel Epstein, Professor of International Political Economy and European Politics, University of Denver

Dr. Ferree uses a discursive approach to explore the paradoxes of how gender equality politics intersects with liberal as well as neoliberal reform projects in universities. The ongoing struggles over meaning of higher education provide the context in which the global dynamics of academic capitalism and global modernization create different challenges and opportunities for gender equality advocates in Germany and the US. She specifically examines the discourses of diversity management and gender mainstreaming as frames for accountability and excellence in these and other universities.

The Euro Challenge is a national competition for 9th and 10th grade high school students to test their knowledge and understanding of the European economy and the euro, the currency shared by many of the 28 European Union member nations. Teams of up to five students take on the role of international policymakers to explore real world economic issues and possible solutions and recommendations to those issues.

Students who win the regional competition at the University of Pittsburgh have the opportunity to advance to the national competition in New York City where the tops teams are awarded cash prizes.

This Institute offers area secondary school French teachers an opportunity to maintain or improve their language skills, to develop deeper understanding of French culture and its global influence, and to share relevant teaching strategies. The French Immersion Institute hosts three Saturday workshops through the year and an intensive, weeklong workshop beginning in the summer of 2016.

France and the United Kingdom possess substantial shale gas reserves. Similarly, both countries’ mineral-rights regimes are state-controlled. In both states, firm and government officials have expressed interest in these reserves to stimulate economic growth and enhance energy security. In France, a Sarkozy-led government’s blunder would trigger a wave of resistance that in 2011 fostered the first ban in the world of the fracking technique. In 2012, Cameron’s government announced its intention to put the U.K. “at the heart of the shale gas revolution.” As of August 2015, however, not a single drilling site was in operation. As in France, a British anti-fracking movement has raised the same objections to the industry. This along with fractures within the government have contributed to a halt in development. Dr. Ilia Murtazashvili, Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, will offer remarks in response to Dr. Keeler's presentation.

Lunch will be provided to preregistered attendees. Please RSVP here by March 1st: http://tinyurl.com/zucnh6b

Cosponsored with: The Shale Gas Governance Center, GSPIA

Cody Corliss is a war crimes prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) where he is part of trial team prosecuting Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war. Mr. Corliss is an expert on international truth commissions and his work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and legal journals throughout the United States. As a Rotary Scholar in the Netherlands, he researched the European integration of immigrants from majority-Muslim nations, with a particular focus on Dutch integration policies. Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Corliss practiced law in Pittsburgh with the international law firm K&L Gates, worked as a political consultant, and was a television news reporter. A native of West Virginia, he has degrees from Harvard, Universiteit Leiden, and Cornell.

NOTE: Room Change!

Can politicians use political tools to prevent volatility in the financial markets? The political economy literature shows that international financial actors watch political developments closely and can respond negatively to certain political events, such as the election of left-wing governments. However, these events are the outcomes of a (sometimes unpredictable) democratic process and beyond the control of political elites. We take a novel approach to this question and explore how political actors can directly mitigate the negative financial market effects based on their selection of ministers and portfolio allocation. We argue that international investors closely monitor political appointments, and are fast to reward governments that appoint (non-partisan) technocrats, especially when these governments lack credibility in the international markets. We expect that technocratic appointments act as signals to investors that a competent and market-friendly environment exists. With an event study analysis that employs new data on the professional and political background of finance ministers in 21 Western and Eastern European parliamentary democracies, we test the effects of ministerial appointments on the market returns. Our findings shed light to a so-far unexplored effect of international financial markets on domestic and partisan politics.

In this month’s virtual roundtable Conversation on Europe, our panel of experts will discuss the ethical and legal questions museums in the Europe and North America face in the on-going debates over art repatriation, conservation, and national vs. universal heritage. Please join us in person or remotely for what promises to be a wide-ranging examination of the topic from the various perspectives of museum curation, art history, anthropology, archeology, and law. Audience participation is encouraged. For more information or to participate remotely, contact kal68@pitt.edu.

Panelists:

Dr. Erin Peters, Joint Lecturer in Curatorial Studies, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Neil Brodie, Senior Research Fellow at the Scottish Center for Crime and Justice Research, University of Glasgow.

Dr. Susan R. Frankenberg, Program Coordinator, Museum Studies of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Sophie Vigneron, Senior Lecturer, Kent Law School, University of Kent

Dr. Allyson Delnore, Associate Director of the European Studies Center, will moderate this discussion.

The second in a series of annual UCIS professional development workshops organized for faculty and staff of community colleges in the Western Pennsylvania region with the aim of internationalizing these community college campuses. Presenters from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University will discuss admissions, orientation, academics and student life in relation to international students attending US colleges.

As a follow-up to research undertaken as a part of EU-GLOBAL, an EU-funded International Researcher and Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) Grant Pitt received along with four partners in the U.S. and Europe, Dr. Bernard Goldstein, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the Graduate School of Public Health, will present his work on the method of shale gas extraction known as “fracking”.

Dr. Goldstein will present a manuscript summarizing studies performed while a visiting professor at the University of Cologne Department of Political Science and European Affairs. While initially focusing on the role of property rights in the differing rate of shale gas development, he found evidence of increasing and broadening concern among the US conservatives, but not the EU right wing, that environmental sustainability and related issues are an attack on US property rights, and that this emerging difference is likely to further heighten EU/US disparities on environmental issues. He will also present preliminary evidence that there are EU/US differences in the formation and role of boundary organizations, such as the Center for Sustainable Shale Development.

The paper is now available for download here: http://tinyurl.com/jlc89qm. Dr. John Keeler, Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, will offer remarks and moderate the question and answer session.

Lunch will be available for pre-registered attendees. Please register by noon February 10, 2016 at: http://tinyurl.com/z5bznaw.

Marcy Brink-Danan is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Hebrew University. She is the author of Jewish Life in 21st Century Turkey: The Other Side of Tolerance (Indiana University Press, 2011). Brink-Danan examines what it means for Jews to live as a tolerated minority in contemporary İstanbul. The overall schedule for the event is listed below:

6:00 PM - Tours of Israel Heritage Room and Turkish Nationality Room
7:00 PM (324 CL) - Lecture with Marcy Brink-Danan
8:30 PM - Refreshments and Reception

Advance Registration is Recommended but not Required
The event is FREE and OPEN to the public

Jurcek Zmauc is the President of the Slovenian American Business Association and is a Secretary of the Office for Slovenes Abroad of the Republic of Slovenia. A native of Maribor, Slovenia, he received degrees in law from the University of Maribor and from the University of Ljubljana. His career has included service as the Republic of Slovenia’s Counsel General in Austria and as its Counsel General in Cleveland, Ohio, and as the Deputy Minister and Director of the Division of Southeast Europe of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia. In ad-dition to his government service, Mr. Zmauc has taught civil and international business law at the University of Maribor, and has served as Director of its Center for International Cooperation.

Claire Goldstein is Associate Professor in the Department of French & Italian at the University of California Davis. Her book, Vaux & Versailles: The Appropriations, Erasures and Accidents that Made Modern France, appeared in 2008 with the University of Pennsylvania Press. She is currently at work on a book manuscript entitled Comets in the Sun King’s Cosmos. Circulation and Epistemology in Early Modern France. This project examines how the last comets before Halley’s organize curiosity, scrutiny, resistance, and doubt regarding the epistemological status of observation, and crystalize alternative (non-official, sometimes contestatory) networks in which information and texts circulate.

The European Studies Center's Europe Day Contest is a multimedia contest for students in grades K-12. Students participating in the Europe Day Contest can submit projects using different forms of media related to each year's theme as an individual participant or as a member of a group of two to four students based on the type of project. Selected student winners will be awarded prizes and the opportunity to display their work at the first annual Europe Day Festival on Saturday, May 7, 2016 on the University of Pittsburgh campus.

For more information please visit the European Studies Center's Europe Day Contest website or contact Kathy Ayers, Outreach Coordinator.

This month’s session of our Conversation on Europe series will be devoted to the recent social movements and electoral dynamics within both the U.S. and Europe that reflect a rise in populist and right wing movements. Polarizing figures like Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen have grabbed headlines on both sides of the Atlantic, attracted enthusiastic crowds at public rallies, and prompted a great deal of liberal hand-wringing in social media forums. How electorally significant are these individuals and movements? What accounts for their rise in popularity? Our panel of experts will debate these issues and others.

Panelists include:

Lenka Bustikova, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University

Jae-Jae Spoon, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of North Texas

Benjamin Haddad, Research Fellow, Hudson Institute

Helga Druxes, Proferssor of German, Williams College

Audience participation is welcome. For more information or to participate remotely, contact adelnore@pitt.edu.

KQV Interview

On Thursday, January 14, 2016, Professor Mallette will deliver the Italian Program’s annual Tucci-Cornetti Lecture at 6pm in 602 CL (Humanities Center) .

“Writ in Water: Poetry on Paper in Medieval Italy”

The technology of papermaking took off in Italy following the fourth crusade, at the beginning of the thirteenth century. By the fourteenth century, Italian paper was abundant and cheap, and Italian papermakers soon dominated the paper industry across the Mediterranean, displacing parchment as writing material. This talk studies the impact that Italian paper had on the writers who used it – historians, storytellers, and especially poets – in late medieval Italy. How did great authors like Dante and Petrarch respond to the new technology? “Writ in Water” describes writers’ reactions to the introduction of the new medium, and how it transformed the writer’s craft.

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP 21 / CMP 11) taking place in Paris November 30-December 11, 2015 seeks to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2⁰C. This will not be an easy goal to reach, as many scientists say the gases we have already emitted into the atmosphere will inevitably lead to a 2 degree increase. Expectations are high on all sides – with optimists and pessimists alike touting this as our last chance to avert catastrophe. This month’s session of our Conversations on Europe series of virtual roundtables will assemble a panel of experts to provide their views of what was accomplished and what was lost in the negotiations. Are the dire prognostications reasonable? And what are the next steps? Audience participation is encouraged. For more information or to participate remotely, contact adelnore@pitt.edu.

Audience participation is encouraged. For more information or to participate remotely, contact adelnore@pitt.edu.

Panelists Include:

Michaël Aklin, Assistant Professor, Political Science

Wil Burns, Co-Executive Director, Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment, American University

Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, Research Fellow, European Energy Policy, Jacques Delors Institute

Leah Stokes, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara

ALL MAJORS WELCOME!

In the fourth installment of our International Career Toolkit Series, we will discuss teaching English abroad and how to prepare for it. Teaching English abroad in public schools, private, schools, universities, and private companies is a great way to immerse yourself in different cultures while gaining valuable experience that will make you stand out when applying to graduate school or jobs. You do not need to be an English or Education major to teach English abroad! Our panelists include invited guests: Pitt alum and current graduate student Crystal Christophe who taught English in South Korea and Oman; Lee Ann Bryan of the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council who taught English at a private school in Slovakia, and in Pittsburgh through Literacy AmeriCorps; Pitt student Michelle Grant who taught English in Spain; and others! Come hear their stories and get ready to teach abroad!

The European Treaties were drafted for a navigation in good weather conditions, not for what we are living through. This simple image summarizes a general perception in Europe: financial tensions among members, dramatic security threats, immigration out of control, nationalism, Brexit... Are those only huge political concerns, or existential challenges for the EU? Is the European Project in danger?

Ignasi Guardans has worked in international relations for over 25 years, notably serving as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2006. Guardans also worked as the Director for Public Affairs and Member Relations for the European Broadcasting Union. In the media, Guardans is a regular contributor to the following major Spanish newspapers such as La Vanguardia, El País, and El Periódico de Catalunya.

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, administrators and staff from Pitt’s European Studies Center and University Center for International Studies, as well as students, staff, and faculty from Pitt, Duquesne University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Carlow University assembled Wednesday, Nov. 18, to show support for the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks and the people of France.

The 28 member states of the European Union have faced considerable challenges of late as hundreds of thousands of migrants flood the land and sea borders to enter Europe. It is clear that the members do not all agree on how to handle the crisis. But the movement of people continues unabated. And with no end in sight to the conflicts that prompt many people to make their way to Europe at any cost, it is likely to continue for some time. With this installment of our virtual roundtable series, Conversations on Europe, we have assembled a panel of journalists, filmmakers, and aid agencies to look more closely at how this crisis is playing out on the shores and on the borders. With pressure shifting from the sea route to the land borders, are there lessons that Balkan nations can learn from their Italian and Greek counterparts? How are aid agencies responding?

Panelists include:

Joanna Kakissis, Foreign Correspondent for National Public Radio. She has also written for Time magazine, Foreign Policy, and the New York Times.

Andrea Segre, Sociologist and Documentary Filmmaker. He is the director of the film Closed Sea/Mare Chiuso.

Martin Xuereb, Director of Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS). Founded in 2013, MOAS is a humanitarian search and rescue operation assisting vessels in distress in the Mediterranean Sea.

Center Director Ron Linden will moderate. Audience and school participation (both at Pitt and via remote connection) is welcome. To join remotely, please contact kma69@pitt.edu.

International Education Week is celebrated at Pitt and campuses across the country for one week, from November 17-21, 2014. The week is an opportunity for you to experience a new culture, open your mind to a new perspective of the world, or to simply savor a new taste. In short, this is the one week of the year that is jam-packed with activities to open your senses to the world.

Check out the activities planned for each day of the week at www.internationalweek.pitt.edu

Please join us for a special day just for world language teachers, ESL teachers, social studies teachers, and administrators.

Highlights include the following:
-FREE curricular and instructional materials for teachers from the University of Pittsburgh's International Outreach Coordinators
-International enrichment programs for students here in Pittsburgh
-Information on the new Global Scholars Program from PSMLA
-Opportunities for international service-learning trips
-Exploration of a global citizenship curriculum

Schedule for the Day:
8:00 AM Registration and Breakfast
9:00 AM Welcome & Keynote Address
9:45 AM Session I
10:45 AM Session II
11:45 AM Session III
12:30 PM Catered Lunch & Table Talks
1:30 PM Debriefing & Next Steps
2:00 PM Wrap Up

Please mail completed registration form and a $50 check made payable to Fox Chapel Area School District by Monday, November 2, 2015.

Fox Chapel Area High School
611 Field Club Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
(412) 967-2430

French and Italian Languages and Literatures is celebrating its 50th anniversary during calendar year 2015. As important figures in the department’s past, present, and future, they invite you to join the celebration!
Join the Department at the 50th anniversary social reception in the University Club Ballroom to reconnect with classmates and faculty. RSVP to frit50@pitt.edu by September 30, 2015, with your name, graduation year, and current address.

The Department of French & Italian Languages and Literatures will hold a conference on Thursday, October 29 and Friday, October 30, 2015: “History and its Discontents: Commemoration in Italy and the Francophone World.” On this occasion we will welcome an exciting slate of visitors to campus to reflect on the dates, places, discourses, and mechanisms of commemoration in the French, Francophone, and Italian cultures; distinguished scholars from a range of institutions and specializing in a stimulating array of topics and periods will be joined in conversation by our Pitt faculty colleagues in French & Italian and beyond.

Martin Munro (Florida State University, French) will deliver the keynote address, with Vivian Curran (Pitt, School of Law), Massimo Riva (Brown, Italian Studies), Debarati Sanyal (Berkeley, French), Carol Symes (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, French/History/Theater), and Laura Wittman (Stanford, French & Italian) presenting their work in plenary sessions. Finally, Ruth Ben-Ghiat (NYU, Italian/History) has agreed to present her new book Fascist Italy’s Empire Cinema in a special session. We hope through this conference to make visible the importance of humanistic inquiry in our understanding, commemoration, and narrativization of the natural and historical events that shape our world.

This event is also sponsored by the European Union Center of Excellence, the Department of French and Italian, and a grant from the Dietrich School Faculty Research and Scholarship Program. For more information contact Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski at renatebk80@gmail.com.

Date:
Thursday, October 29, 2015 - 5:00pm to Friday, October 30, 2015 - 6:00pm

Qu’est ce qui a fait rire Jean Louis Dassier et Myriam Gau depuis qu’ils sont petits? Venez découvrir le rire en France vue par ces deux animateurs dynamiques.

French Immersion Institutes are designed for French instructors as well as advanced level college students to broaden their cultural understanding of current events and international studies regarding French-speaking countries, to strengthen their French listening and speaking skills, and to share strategies for the teaching of French language and culture. ACT 48 credit is available. Lunch and a continental breakfast will be served. Advanced registration is required.

By all accounts, the number of anti-Semitic incidences—including violent attacks on synagogues, businesses and individuals—has reached a postwar high across Europe. Official responses and those of community leaders have varied, as have explanations. Some point to the re-emergence of age-old European attitudes or populist political parties while others suggest a link to Europe’s changing demographic or a reflection of the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This Conversation will explore the current situation of Jewish communities in light of Europe’s past and with a view toward the future. Center Director Ron Linden will moderate.

Panelists include: Gunther Jikeli of Indiana University, author of Muslim Antisemitism in Europe; Ben Judah, author and journalist, who has written on Britain’s Jews for Politico and Tablet; Andrew Srulevitch, Director of European Affairs and Assistant Director of International Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League; and David Weinberg, Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University and author of Recovering a Voice: West European Jewish Communities after the Holocaust.

Audience and school participation (both at Pitt and via remote connection) is welcome. To join remotely, please contact kma69@pitt.edu.