Jim Busis, CEO and Publisher of The Jewish Chronicle and former director of the Asia Pacific Institute at the American Jewish Committee, will discuss the past, present, and future of PRC-Israel relations.

Many people know the tragic and destructive story of the Siege of Leningrad as one of the longest military operations in history that left a city ruined. Bombed and shelled continuously by the German Army from 1941-1944, Leningrad — known as St. Petersburg before 1924 and after 1991 — lost more than one million civilian citizens.

Russia was a quintessential Eurasian empire. Like its imperial symbol, the double-headed eagle facing east and west, Russia emerged in response to challenges and influences from both Europe and the steppe. While the European dimensions of the Russian empire are more apparent, the role of the Great Eurasian steppe has long remained unrecognized or misunderstood. The impact of the steppe, it turns out, was a crucial factor in the formation of the Russian state and its imperial political culture.

The colloquium aims to draw out the multiple meanings of "Afropean" at the intersection of aesthetic and political forms of expression of the African diaspora. Responses will be given by John Walsh, Department of French and Italian.

Join us for a special session of Conversations on Europe to commemorate German Unity Day on October 3rd. Co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, the EUCE has organized a virtual roundtable discussion reflecting on Germany since 1989. The expert panel will include Visiting Professor Georg Menz, Department of Political Science; Ruprecht Polenz, a German politician and former Chairman of the German Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs; Margaret Littler, University of Manchester; and Jack Janes, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.

James Coleman holds a Ph.D. in Italian from Yale University, and a B.A. in
Classics, also from Yale. He has published research on Italian literature from
the Trecento to the Settecento. His published work includes essays on
Giovanni Boccaccio's De Canaria, Angelo Poliziano and Quattrocento
Florentine humanism, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and the thought of
Giambattista Vico. He has forthcoming work on the humanist forger Laudivio
Zacchia, the first vernacular commentary on Lucretius's De rerum natura,
and the Renaissance reception of Boccaccio's Genealogia. He is currently

From tomb robbers to diplomats the lucrative trade in antiquities during the 1800s involved much more than individual treasure hunters and travelers seeking souvenirs. During this period, the field of archaeology was forming as a structured discipline, grand-scale excavations were conceived and undertaken, national and imperial museums were founded, the art market became sophisticated and professional, and private collectors vied to be the owners of precious and impressive artifacts.

Dr. Alpan, a visiting scholar in the Center’s International Research Scholar Exchange Scheme, will discuss how energy emerges as a practical security concept and is represented in policy discourses in Europe and Turkey. Ever since the end of Cold War and since 9/11 in particular, the concept of ‘security’ has experienced a profound conceptual change. This talk will examine the securitization of ‘energy’ within the EU and Turkey and its impact on from a comparative perspective.

During her studies in the GSPIA PhD program, Vera Achvarina was a researcher at the Ford Institute for Human Security from 2005 through 2007. She will present on:

-A Ford institute project under her leadership which closely examined security situations in African refugee and IDP camps.
-Her research on child soldiering seeking to answer why some armed rebel groups recruit minors for armed conflict while others do not.
-Her recent co-authored work on transitional justice in Northern Uganda and people's attitudes towards retribution.

Have you ever thought about interning or working with refugees or internally displaced people (IDP) in a camp where they sought shelter?

Vera Achvarina conducted research in a refugee camp (Liberian refugee camp in Ghana) for her doctoral fieldwork.

Hear about camp conditions, viability of interning at a camp, and ways to do field research with people in this situation.