Dr. Durán-Merk comes to us as a result of Pitt’s long-standing researcher exchange agreement with Universität Augsburg in Germany, where she is a research associate at the Institute for European Ethnology and Folklore. Her primary areas of interest include migration research, visual anthropology, the anthropology of consumption, and media studies, particularly regarding relations between German and Latin American cultures. Before moving to Germany, Dr. Durán-Merk worked for several years as a television producer and writer in Monterrey, Mexico and the U.S.

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.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the EUCE/ESC and the Department of German are pleased to present a group of events to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall. Author of the book “Berlin Now: The City After the Wall”, Peter Schneider, who moved to Berlin in 1962 and witnessed the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, visits the University of Pittsburgh to share his experiences as keen observer of Berlin. His novel Der Mauerspringer (The Wall Jumper) was first published in 1983, and has become a classic. In it he describes life in the shadow of the Wall.

Charles Fourier (1772-1837) was neither gay nor bi. But he was indeed ‘prosaphian’. That means he enjoyed crossing both grammatical and sexual borders in order to build a New Amorous World (1816). We will sketch out some of the ways in which Fourier queers his socialist sexual utopia, such as creating new words and mixing assorted genres and genders, in order to create an at once joyous and ‘ambiguous’ utopia.

This is the first film in the series, "The Play's the Thing: Vaclav Havel, Art and Politics," presented at Pitt by the Czechoslovak Nationality Room courtesy of the Czech Embassy. "Magicky hlas rebelky" is a 2014 documentary about the Czech singer Marta Kubisova, who has become a symbol in the Czech Republic of the period in history known as the Velvet Revolution (1989), when a mass protest movement led to the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. The film includes segments of members of the dissident organization Charter 77, including former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

“Should Scotland be an independent country?” In a referendum scheduled for September 18th, voters in that country will have an opportunity to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on that very question. On Tuesday, Sepetember 23rd, the EUCE at Pitt will devote the first session of its award-winning Conversations on Europe virtual roundtable series to a discussion of the results of the referendum. What is the future of the Scottish National Party? How will this effect UK politics? What are the implications of the results for other nationalist movements in Europe and North America?

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the German Department and the EUCE have organized a film and lecture series.

The first film, Der Geteilte Himmel/Divided Heaven (1963), will be held on September 11th at 5:30pm in room 324 of the Cathedral of Learning. The film will be introduced by Prof. Halle

Pizza will be provided at the film events.

The Divided Heaven
(Der geteilte Himmel)
Director: Konrad Wolf, b/w, 113 min., 1963/64

Actress and scholar Ruth Levin will join in a round table discussion titled "Europe en Miniature at the Margins." Focusing on a "Europe en miniature" at the "eastern-most border" of "Europe"--a region of "books and people," as the poet Paul Celan called it--is a region that is home to Austro-German, Jewish, Romanian, and Ukrainian cultures and has produced many poets who were fluent in several languages.

For centuries the area of today’s Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania has been shaped by different national and ethnic groups. This symposium will examine the (re)imagining and (re)interpreting of spaces, symbols and sites in the of Baltic region from the 19th to the 21st century. Presenters will address historical difficulties with “mapping” this multi-ethnic region as well as current issues connected with the region’s recent history after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Thursday, October 9, 2014 (Alcoa Room, Pitt School of Law, 2nd floor)

How strong is the bond between men united by the call to arms? Eight young Irishmen, thrown together for army training during the Great War, must move beyond the troubles between Protestant and Catholic as they prepare for the Battle of the Somme. Frank McGuinness' lyrical play captures the fierce friendship and loyalty among men who must face the wickedness and wastefulness of war. The effects of WWI, launched almost 100 years ago to the day, still haunt our headlines. This is a timeless story, appropriate for ages 12+.