This conference features keynote speaker Ambassador Peter Tomsen (GSPIA ’64), Former U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Author of "The Wars of Afghanistan". An R.S.V.P. is required. To attend, please email Beverly Brizzi by Monday, December 2nd, to confirm your registration.

February 19, 2013, Newsweek published an article that was provocatively titled “France: Leader of the Free World.” Even more provocatively, the subtitle taunted U.S. leaders with “The French are a decisive, manly superpower. Unlike America.” Gendered rhetoric aside, French foreign policy in recent years has led other powers to take note. Rather than waiting for collective decisions from NATO or the EU and citing historical interests in the region, the French intervened in Libya and the Ivory Coast under President Sarkozy and Mali under President Hollande.

Join the Center at the first of our country-themed social gatherings with a celebration of Oktoberfest! Enjoy music, rootbeer flights and pretzels, and get to know our Center Director, staff, and some of our affiliated faculty. Meet with other students interested in German and/or European Studies, and if you are a student who has traveled to Germany and would like to submit a photo from your travels, enter your favorite for a chance to win our photo contest. Please send your photo to euce@pitt.edu as an attachment prior to the event.

Mircea Geoana served as President of the Romanian Senate from 2008 to 2011 and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party from 2005 to 2011. In 2009 he was a candidate for President of the country. He has served as Ambassador to the United States and as Chair in Office of the OSCE. Goeana’s views on foreign policy, transitional economies and globalization have been featured in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Atlantic, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, CNN, BBC, PBS, Bloomberg, TV5 and Fox Business.

Dr. Martens is Chief Executive of The European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank set up to promote European integration. He is the founder of Martens International Consulting, specializing in international consultancy and customized training for a number of major companies, and the author of a number of books and articles on European integration, monetary affairs, and business strategies for the European market. Questioning whether Europe finally has the Euro crises under control, Martens will also present his analysis of the future direction of European integration.

Testimonies of Kristallnacht read by Pitt students and a lecture by professor Robert Skloot (University of Wisconsin).

Available for both undergraduates and graduate students, Boren Awards support the study of less-commonly-taught languages through study abroad. Applicants must demonstrate how their proposal and future goals are connected to a broad understanding of national security, and award winners must agree to a one-year government service requirement. The deadline for undergraduate applications in December 2nd.

Learn more about DAAD programs for both undergraduates and graduates, and for German speaking and non-German speaking students. Dr. Wezel will discuss a variety of research, study, and internship DAAD scholarships that can fund up to 2 years of research or graduate study. For scholarship requirements and deadlines, please reference the DAAD’s website, which also includes information for the summer internship program with RISE (Research Internships in Science and Engineering). To R.S.V.P., please email Judy Zang at jaz36@pitt.edu.

Professor Pahl will offer an additional colloquium that focuses on the emotionality of paragraphs 166 through 196 of Hegel’s "Phenomenology of Spirit". For more information or scans of these passages, please send an email requesting copies to grmndept@pitt.edu. Cookies and drinks will be provided.

Professor Pahl approaches the German literary and philosophical canon from a queer-feminist perspective, with the arc of her research situated in affect and emotion studies. She edited the Modern Language Notes 2009 issue on Emotionality, and she was awarded the Best Article in Feminist Scholarship Prize from the Coalition of Women in German for “Transformative Translations: Cyrillizing and Queering.” In this lecture, Pahl will explore Heinrich von Kleist's “Anekdote aus dem letzten Kriege” (“Anecdote from the Recent War”). The lecture is in English.