Reflections about Johannes Reuchlin, Some Notaries, and Some Learned Jews. With responses by Ryan McDermott (English) and Ron Zboray (Communication).

Faculty and graduate students in Pitt Humanities departments can access readings for colloquia by logging in to , clicking on the tab “My Resources,” clicking on “Humanities Center,” and then clicking on “Colloquium Series” where there is a link to the pdf files. Anyone else wishing to access the readings may request the reading at humctr@pitt.edu.

Dr. Venuti will give a seminar focusing on different ways of thinking about translation, using theory and examples of translations between English and other languages. He will focus on particular texts and ways to teach them, again, to students without strong second language skills. Amani Attia (Arabic Coordinator), Lina Insana (Associate Professor of Italian), and Gina Peirce (Assistant Director of Russian and East European Studies) will also speak at this workshop.

For seminar materials, contact: Carol M. Bové.

Prof. Venuti will give an overview of literary translation including the ways in which a translated text offers a set of relations, a form of intertextuality, analogous to the set offered by the source text. He will discuss particular strategies one might use with undergraduates and beginning graduate students who often lack advanced knowledge of a second language, for instance two English versions of the same source text. There will be ample opportunity for discussion.

Organizer: The Marginal Theory Society

*Anyone is welcome to attend any of the presentations.*

Marginal Theory Workshop: "Non-Traditional Approaches to International
Relations"

Schedule of events:

Saturday, February 9th

9:45-10:00 - Introduction

10:00-10:30 - First Speaker - Dr. Daniel Lieberfeld - (Duquesne - Social
and Public Policy) - "Leadership and Post-conflict Reconciliation"

10:30-11:00 - Q and A

11:00-11:15 - mini-break

11:15-11:45 - Second Speaker - Dr. Robert Cavalier (CMU - Philosophy) -
"Toward a More Deliberative Democracy - Here and Abroad"

Abstract:

Story-telling is ubiquitous, ranging from fiction to gossip, but what exactly is the core structure of narrative? This talk will propose that narrative thinking takes place when we consider alternative versions of an event – and make excuses. Based on this suggestion, the talk provides an overview of this theory of narrative and ends with a speculation about the connection of narrative and moral reasoning.

*Part of the visit of short-term fellow Dror Wahrman

With responses by Molly Warsh (History) and Adam Shear (Religious Studies).

Master's Thesis Defense:

Claudia Fritsche, Ambassador of Liechtenstein to the United States, joined the Office for Foreign Affairs of the Principality of Liechtenstein on June 1st, 1978 and served in a variety of diplomatic functions. Ambassador Fritsche assumed her duties as the first resident Ambassador of Liechtenstein in Washington at the beginning of October 2002 after leaving her post in New York, where she had served as the Permanent Representative of the Principality of Liechtenstein to the United Nations from 1990 to 2002.

Mr. Dimiter Kenarov will present a lecture that focuses on shale gas in Poland and Europe which will be live videoconferenced with the European Union Center of Excellence at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

“Shale Gas: From Poland to Pennsylvania” – Based upon his new project forthcoming that focuses on a commodity called “a game changer", promoted as a cleaner fossil alternative to coal and oil and cheered as the next step toward the American dream of energy independence. Poland is now Europe's center of shale gas. Like Pennsylvania, it embraces the promises and dangers of extraction. At the center of debate: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and an associated largely unexplored question of global politics.