What is the power of study abroad for forging new identities? For this installment of our monthly Conversations on Europe series, we will look at the EU’s billion-dollar student and scholar exchange program called ERASMUS, which has reshaped higher education in Europe. With what results? How successful has the program been for the Europeanization of Europe’s college-aged youth? And what impact will Brexit have on the program?

Part of German Campus Week and the ESC's Participation and Democracy series for 2017-18.

Panelists:
Annika Schechinger, Deputy Director of the Information Center USA, German Embassy
Tarik Abou-Chadi, Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Humboldt-University Berlin
Mark Kayser, Professor of Applied Methods and Comparative Politics, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
Gregor Thum, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh

The nineteenth century saw the explosion of questions: the Eastern, social, Jewish, Polish, worker and many other questions were hotly discussed in representative bodies, at treaty negotiations, and above all in the daily press. Over the course of the next century, these would be conglomerated into still bigger ones—the European, nationality, social, and agrarian questions—even as they fractured into countless smaller ones, like the Macedonian and Schleswig-Holstein questions, and made their way into various fields of human endeavor (there was cotton, oyster, and even a sugar question).

International Career Toolkit Series will be hosting an event this Friday at 12:00-1:30 p.m. in WWPH 4217. Usha E. Pitts will be giving a talk entitled "Careers in Diplomacy". The U.S. Department of State is one of the few employers who will pay you to live and work abroad without requiring a specialized skill. It hires Americans over the age of 20 from all walks of life. If you are attracted to public service and want to live abroad, come learn more about Careers in Diplomacy from Usha Pitts, a diplomat with 19 years in the Foreign Service.

Arvind Thiruvengadam will present the study that involved the discovery of the Volkswagen defeat device scandal. Discussion will include how the study was conducted, the overarching goals and how he uncovered a major scandal. Thiruvengadam will talk in depth about the state of US emissions regulation, the challenges engine manufacturers face, engine efficiency and what the future directions.

Leila Marouane, author of "The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris"

2-3:30 pm
Reading and Q&A with Leila Marouane

3:45-5 pm
Roundtable Discussion "What to do with French in 2017?"

Free and open to the public

Organized by the Department of French & Italian

Formerly known as the "Arab Courier," Pittsburgh's arguably most well-known diorama is being re-named "Lion Attacking a Dromedary" and moved from the second floor of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to the museum entry. This move represents a re-interpretation of the work-no longer considered "natural" and biological history, the diorama is now understood to reflect racialist stereotypes of the Arab world. Museums have long been institutions that categorize people, objects, and history.

Student trip to Washington DC.