Over the last two academic years, there have been students in our [WCCC] classrooms from over 40 different countries. Because we do not have large numbers of international students, it is sometimes easy to overlook their presence on campus. On October 6, faculty members from the University Center for International Studies at Pitt will provide unique insight into the life experiences of international students.

This talk will investigate the gendered production of migrant rights by examining two groups of Filipina women in South Korea: factory workers and hostesses at American military camptown clubs. Based on ethnographic research, I identify two distinct labor regimes for migrant women that were differently shaped in the shadow of working men.

In recent months the Chinese have greatly increased their visibility and economic involvement in Europe. China is now the EU’s second leading trading partner and the EU is China’s first. EU leaders are increasingly attentive to Chinese views on a number of issues, including a range of economic and strategic topics. Panelists on this Conversation will explore both the current state of EU-China relations, the implications for Transatlantic ties and future directions of this dynamic relationship.

Tzung-Shiun Li, Ph.D. is Professor, Department of Administrative Management, Central Police University, Taiwan. Now as Visiting Scholar, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs & Certer of Disaster Management, University of Pittsburgh. He also serves as Chairman at Chinese Association of National Competitiveness and Standing Director(2011~2114) of Neihu Safety and Health Collaborative Association in Taiwan. His research interests are crisis management & risk governance, contracting out government services, leadership and public philosophy.

China’s electric power industry, now the world’s largest, displays an unusual mix of impressive achievement and large-scale inefficiency. Rapid accumulation of technical capability has transformed this industry into a major force in global markets for equipment and project management, most notably in the nuclear sector, even as changing demand patterns threaten the finances of major generating companies. The giant ecological footprint of China’s power sector adds urgency to tracking its likely future direction.

Hong’s arrival in the mid-1990s marks a new phase in the development of Korean cinema in the post-democratization era. He responded to the post-epic condition by rediscovering everyday life (its contingency and disjointedness) via a minimalist gaze.

Model United Nations provides students the opportunity to learn about and discuss today's most relevant issues of international diplomacy through participation in an academic simulation.

In prehistoric China, egalitarian communities were often organized into ‘bifurcated settlements’ (两分结构聚落). These settlements are characterized by distinct clustering of residential areas and even burial grounds into two distinct sectors. Ethnographic examples of bifurcated settlements indicate their internal organization is a reflection of a kind of kinship organization akin to the moieties of South America, phratries of North America, and marriage classes of Australia.

Excrement was a hot commodity in the cities of nineteenth-century Japan. The widespread use of night soil as an organic fertilizer meant that residents of big cities such as Edo (Tokyo) and Osaka could sell their waste rather than dispose of it themselves. Thanks to this trade, early modern Japanese cities enjoy a reputation as remarkably green spaces, in which residents lived in salubrious harmony with nature.  Let us put poop into the modernizing city.

The determinants behind the political selection of officials in China have been the subject of great debate. Although factions and political connections play an important role, China’s stellar economic performance since 1978 suggests that the Communist Party’s cadre management system is still able to select and promote at least some competent individuals to hold important government positions. This paper evaluates the extent to which the Party uses economic performance, namely the growth of local fiscal revenues and GDP, as the indicators of competence when promoting local politicians.