“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.

As President Obama’s second term commences, the continued vitality of America’s oldest alliance remains critical, as seen by recent speculation about a US-EU free trade agreement. Simultaneously, Europe itself is in the midst of change, as its eastward expanding borders force a reassessment of European and EU identity. Ms. Amy Westling, Deputy Director of the Office of European Union and Regional Affairs, joins us from the US Department of State to discuss the continued importance and current initiatives of the evolving transatlantic partnership.

"KLAPA CAMBI" is the most awarded and internationally recognized vocal group from Croatia. Their performance will take you through ancient Dalmatian cities, help you feel love and appreciation for the Homeland, and bring you closer to the beautiful Adriatic. Although unique and original, the repertoire of "Klapa Cambi" will be further enriched through performances alongside the Jerry Grcevich Tamburitza Orchestra and several renowned American artists, creating a musical fusion between the two countries.

The Department of History of Art & Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh is pleased to announce its 2012 graduate student symposium titled “Exhibition Complex: Displaying People, Identity, and Culture.” Organized in collaboration with the Carnegie Museum of Art, our topic is inspired by the museum's fall 2012 exhibition Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World's Fairs, 1851-1939. This year's symposium sets out to analyze the many modes of display, types of artistic production, and built and existing structures that constitue ephemeral exhibition spaces.

Cengiz Haksoz, a graduate student in the Anthropology Department at Pitt, will present a portion of his dissertation, which focuses on transnational identity formation. Pizza and Politics is the EUCE/ESC’s monthly graduate student speaker forum focusing on European and European Union Studies. For more information, contact Allyson Delnore at adelnore@pitt.edu. PIZZA WILL BE SERVED.

The talk will explore the tension between the architects seeking to redefine the urban texture of Romania’s major cities according to the modernist principles, and the archaeologists searching for new data on these cities’ early history. I analyze the urban modernization of socialist Romania during the 1950s and 1960s with an eye to understanding the reconfiguration of political alliances and the formation of transnational networks of technological expertise in post-1945 Europe.

PICT presents the Chekhov Festival featuring plays, short plays and vaudevilles celebrating the work and characters of Anton Chekhov. Four unique productions will allow you to discover - or rediscover - what makes Chekhov arguably the greatest playwright since Shakespeare.