Professor Fister’s lecture will focus on three princess-nuns active in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Two of the nuns established their own convents and a third entered and revitalized an imperial convent with a history dating back to the 14th century. Influenced by the Lotus Sutra, the act of creating devotional objects became an important part of their Buddhist practice.

December 1 is World AIDS Day. Gao Jun is an AIDS orphan in a remote village of Anhui Province, China. In this Academy Award-winning documentary, the young protagonist does not speak a word until the closing minutes of the film. And little is known about him, not even his age. What is known, and is poignantly depicted in this film, is how traditional Chinese obligations of family and village collide with the terror of infection with HIV/AIDS and how these forces play out in the lives of children like Gao Jun.

Slides of works from the exhibition “Social Graphics: the Art of Jeski (Jeseok Yi)” will be on display in the reception area.
This event is free of charge thanks to the generosity of The Korea Society.
Participants must register online (http://www.worldaffairspittsburgh.memberlodge.org/Default.aspx?pageId=11...) to attend. No-shows and cancellations after November 29, 2011 will be charged. Please advise in advance of any dietary restrictions.

China Town Hall is a national day of programming on China, involving fifty cities throughout the United States. The event will consist of a reception with light refreshments beginning at 6:30 p.m., followed by a live webcast at 6:50 p.m. from Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinksi, former national security advisor and current counselor and trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C. After the webcast, the local guest speaker Dr. A.

Dr. Balaji Sampath is a central figure in AID, he is one of the founders of AID INDIA, and the Eureka Child program - an innovative and comprehensive educational program active in 1000 villages across Tamil Nadu. (http://aidindia.org/main/content/view/812/399)

Institutionalizing School-Based Managedment (SBM) in Teacher Education Colleges: An Acceleration Model of SBM Implementation in Indonesian Primary and Secondary Schools
by Muhammada Asfah Rahman, Faculty Member, State University of Makassar, Indonesia and IISE Visiting Scholar, School of Education, University of Pittsburgh
The Implementation of Pre-international Standard Schools in Indonesia: Between Quality and Prestige
by Fathor Rasyid, Faculty Member, State University of Malang, Indonesia, and IISE Visiting Scholar, School of Education, University of Pittsburgh

The Consulate General of Japan in New York and the Pittsburgh JET Alumni Association welcome anyone interested in applying to teach English at K-12 schools in Japan or work as a coordinator for international relations in local and state government offices in Japan to join us for this information session about the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. For 24 years, the JET Program has welcomed over 54,000 participants from 56 countries to create grassroots connections for international exchange.

Purposeful Penny, a GSPIA student organization raising funds for educational development in developing countries, will host its third fundraising dinner. All food will be prepared by our "volunteer chefs." You will get to taste dishes from Korea, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Finland, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Peru, Chile, China, Sudan and the US all at one place! We will also have a raffle basket prize event themed as inter-cultural candy & cookie basket for your use on the Halloween Day.

This paper investigates the acquisition of imperfective aspect marker -teiru in Japanese. Through the analysis of caretaker speech and children's speech, it tests the predictions of the Language Bioprogram Hypothesis (Bickerton, 1981) and the Distributional Bias Hypothesis (Shirai & Andersen, 1995). The results show strong correspondences between input and children's language, and support the latter hypothesis.

Light refreshments will be served.

ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE – Noon in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their lunch or a snack along if you wish and enjoy!