The annual Pittsburgh Asia Consortium Undergraduate Research Conference is the largest undergraduate conference on Asian studies in Pennsylvania. Presentations come from many disciplines and on any part of geographical Asia, including the Middle East.

Professor Sunderland received his BA in Russian Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and his masters and doctorate in history from Indiana University. Since joining the department in 1996, he has taught in the fields of Russia and the Soviet Union, modern Europe, and world history.

Sunderland's principal research interests are in the history of the Russian Empire in the modern period. In conducting his work, he has lived and traveled extensively in the Russian Federation and the other states of the former Soviet Union.

What does it mean for a course, module, or lesson to be “global’? In part, it means looking at a question from multiple lenses—whether political, economic, social, cultural, ecological, or other. What better way to approach global curriculum planning (and to model collaborative learning for our students!) than to partner with colleagues from other disciplines in the same school?

The Fukushima nuclear accident has launched a series of ongoing social movements in Japan—the antinuclear movement; the anti-racist movement; and the protests against such policies as the Secrecy Law, the Security Bill, and the Conspiracy Law. This talk examines the ways in which musicians' and activists' responses have shifted with political developments in recent social movements.

The play, originally created in Tamil, is a collection of writing by and about Tamil speaking women who traveled across oceans from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka for work or were displaced by war. The script consists of poetry, traditional folk songs, excerpts from short stories and government documents. The stories date back to the early 19th Century to the present day. While translating the play in English, the Marapachchi team found that the play works on many registers. While the play is about Tamil-speaking women, the incidents and stories may resonate with other contexts and histories.

At a moment when marriage and childbirth are on the decline, employment is increasingly short-term and precarious, and more and more people are living longer and all alone, sociality is changing in Japan. Away from the workplace or the family, ever more attention is placed on a free-floating, mobile but responsible self. Consistent with this streamlining of the social is a new trend in “simple living” spurred by de-clutter guru, Marie Kondo.

Students from all UCIS centers graduating in Spring and Summer 2018 are invited with their families to join this UCIS wide ceremony celebrating their completion of the certificate or BPHIL/IAS.

For more information, please see: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/rivers-symposium.