We are very proud to welcome the 2012 Second Language Research Forum to Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh is known as the "City of Bridges", and we hope to use this idea to highlight the bridges that exist between the various disciplines involved in SLA research. SLRF 2012 will build on this theme with the aim of bridging gaps between individual disciplines that all share a common goal: to improve our understanding of second language learning, acquisition, instruction, and use.

What does Tuesday's outcome mean for Europe?
Three experts on European politics from the University of Pittsburgh discuss European reactions to the results of the U.S. presidential election. How do Europeans understand the electoral process? What effects will the presidential election have on U.S.-Europe relations? What are the implications of the U.S. election for the Euro Crisis? How do Europeans view the winner of the presidential election? Audience participation in the discussion is encouraged.
Lunch will be served.

With responses by Stephen Carr (English), Louise Lippincott (Carnegie Art Museum), Adam Shear (Religious Studies).

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.

This lecture will explore the manner in which Darwin prepared his case and crafted his text to meet the skeptics. This analysis will raise questions about the criteria demanded for the acceptance of evidence and prompt reflection on the present state of the subject.

In conjunction with the traveling exhibit "Rewriting the Book of Nature: Charles Darwin and the Rise of Evolutionary Theory" from the National Library of Medicine.

Business does not only influence science in 21st-century America. This talk reveals how entrepreneurial science has been with us since the scientific revolution, and exposes how product marketing, patent litigation, and ghostwriting pervaded the practice of natural history and anatomy, the big sciences of the early modern era. It argues that the growth of global trade in the Dutch Golden Age gave rise to a transnational network of entrepreneurial science, connecting natural historians, physicians, and curiosi in Amsterdam, London, St Petersburg, or Danzig.

Osvaldo Golijov’s unique, Grammy Award-winning chamber opera reunites the artists of Quantum’s acclaimed 2011 production Maria de Buenos Aires. To this point, it seems appropriate that we are in East Liberty again- this time, at the beautiful East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Ainadamar tells the story of Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca’s life as a young artist at the eve of the Spanish revolution and of his relationship with Margarita Xirgu, the great Catalan tragedian who was his muse.

A corollary to the traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine: "Rewriting the Book of Nature: Charles Darwin and the Rise of Evolutionary Theory."