Dr. Christian Burgsmüller is a career EU diplomat currently with the European External Action Service (EEAS), serving as Counselor at the EU Delegation to the U.S. in Washington, D.C. Dr. Burgsmüller studied law in Freiburg i.Br., Geneva and Cologne and worked as a trainee solicitor in Düsseldorf, Brussels, Cologne and Buenos Aires before passing the German Bar Exam in 2000 and subsequently joining the European Commission in Brussels as a career official.
The main One Book One Community event for this year will be the Pittsburgh premier of Snow with writer/director Isaac Ergas and a panel discussion on the Role of Film in Public Health.
Snow is a short, live-action film based on the true story of Dr. John Snow, the father of epidemiology. The panel discussion will include:
Isaac Ergas: Writer/director and public health professional
Carl Kurlander: Writer/producer, University of Pittsburgh Film Studies Program and Steeltown Entertainment Project
Katie Trumpener, Emily Sanford Professor of Comparative Literature and English and director of graduate studies in comparative literature at Yale University
This graduate seminar is in English and open to all graduate students.
Biography – the story of a person’s life – is one of the most popular types of literature today. Yet biography also holds an important place in scholarship. Biographies invite us to consider what effect, if any, an individual may have on the larger course of events. Biographies of creative personalities bring up the further question of whether connections exist between a life and times and an individual’s music, art, or literary works and if so, what those connections might be.
The pre-circulated text for discussion in this seminar will be Professor Ng's forthcoming article, "Dutch Wars, Global Trade, and the Heroic Poem:
Dryden's Annus Mirabilis (1666) and Amin's Sya'ir Perang Mengkasar (1670)." The essay is attached.
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Ng is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma.
"You taught me language, and my profit on't/ Is, I know how to curse," thus Shakespeare's Caliban accused his master Prospero of linguistic colonialism. But how accurate was this picture of transnational communication? When Europeans entered the sphere of the Indian Ocean, in what language or languages did they speak? This paper considers early modern European translingual exchanges with Southeast Asia, the aim of European long-distance voyaging as the ultimate source of sought-after spices, examining in particular the role of Malay, a lingua franca of the spice trade, as a global language.
Jan Techau is director of Carnegie Europe, the European Centre of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Techau is a noted expert on EU integration and foreign policy, transatlantic affairs, and German foreign and security policy. Prior to his appointment at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Techau served at the NATO Defense College’s Research Division from February 2010 until March 2011.
With financial crises looming in Europe, the world is bracing for new shocks. How will it all play out? Will the euro and the European Union survive? These and many other questions engage students at the University of Pittsburgh. Join us to learn about some of the initiatives that Pitt graduate students from varying disciplines are creating to bring the EU to campus (or bring the campus to the EU)! Don’t miss out on this chance to meet colleagues who have similar research, professional or extracurricular interests in the EU. And, of course, pizza will be served.
Paul Adams is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. His research interests center around the relations between the European Union and Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and the Microstates of Europe. He has also written articles on corporatism and comparative politics. Dr. Adams will be presenting this lecture, which is also on the program for the 2012 International Studies Association Convention in San Diego in April 2012.
Lunch will be served.
