The Undergraduate Research Symposium is an annual event since 2002 designed to provide undergraduate students, from the University of Pittsburgh and other colleges and universities, with advanced research experiences and opportunities to develop presentation skills. The event is open to undergraduates from all majors and institutions who have written a research paper from a social science, humanities, or business perspective focusing on the study of Eastern, Western, or Central Europe, the European Union, Russia, or other countries of the former Soviet Union.

They Odyssey has a dim or ironic view of epic glory. It holds up a mirror for an audience who has come to hear of such glory, and does so in moments that are virtuosic as scripts. We will perform a couple of these moments to better understand how they work on the stage, as opposed to the page. We will then turn to how Plato used one of them in his homage to the power of Homer, thinly disguised as a parody, in his Ion.

Every few years, important new material concerning Greek lyric poetry comes to light. The most recent is the announcement of some potentially extremely important new fragments of Sappho's poetic oeuvre. Unfortunately, there are also many questions associated with this; cf. Adrian Murdoch's blog, "Bread & Circuses", at this site.
The original posting of the new article was, however, still available (as of Feb. 4) here. *Scoll down the webpage, which is in French for the English text. (That site, dealing with literature "littérature" indeed uses the spelling "actualitte".)

Twice in the Iliad (4.370-418, 5.800-813), a rousing tale of Tydeus’s embassy to Thebes is told to his son Diomedes. Is it a coincidence that this rather obscure story should constitute Homer’s only extended allusion to the famous war of the “Seven against Thebes”? Does this choice merely reflect the rhetorical needs of Agamemnon and Athena, who seek to stir Diomedes to deeds of valor? I argue that the two passages, taken together, reveal a unitary conception and literary form that go well beyond the rhetorical needs of these speakers.

Professor O’Callaghan explores the role of collective memory in the Eurozone crisis from a lawyer's perspective. The idea of collective memory features prominently in several disciplines but rarely in legal scholarship. He argues that the idea of collective memory can help us to better understand fundamental aspects of the EU Treaty framework and secondary legislation, and may also provide instructive insights about the policy responses to the Eurozone crisis.

The Guardian first revealed the NSA's comprehensive surveillance program in early June of last year, working from information from the now-infamous Edward Snowden. Two weeks later, a series of articles exposed NSA and British spying on European and South American officials at a G20 meeting and by the end of the month, Der Spiegel had published details of America’s electronic surveillance and bugging of European Union offices and the embassies of France, Italy, Greece, and others.

The eighth edition of the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival is dedicated to the legacy of world-renowned filmmaker, psychologist, and Carnegie Mellon professor, Paul Goodman, and to his professional focus on the human challenges and achievements of diverse groups of workers worldwide.

The History Department Work-in-Progress Seminar presents Madalina Veres, University of Pittsburgh. Lead discussants Elspeth Martini and Katja Wezel.

NOTE: Text will be circulated three weeks before event. All attending are urged to prepare to take full part in discussion.