Asian Studies Center

Synonyms: 
ASC
Asian Studies

The Human Cost of India's Race for Development

Presenter: 
Priyanka Borpujari, Independent Journalist, Mumbai, India
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Wed, 02/20/2013 - 18:00

While India is perceived as an emerging market, the stories of the plundering of natural resources and the systematic annihilation of the indigenous peoples go unheard. In this race to make India a superpower, and a growing media industry that champions this idea, social inequality has reached its zenith, and easily gets pushed aside. What, then, is the future of the people who grow food with their hands; wo have long been guarding forests and rivers--even before climate change could touch them?

Location: 
William Pitt Union Room 837

For the Love of Water: How did a Handful of Corporations Steal our Water?

Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Sat, 02/16/2013 - 16:00

Pitt Global Brigades and Engineers without Borders present the documentary "FLOW (For the Love of Water): How did a handful of corporations steal our water?" Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigates what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis. Prefaced by a discussion and presentation by Amizade: Global Service Learning, an NGO based in downtown Pittsburgh implementing international water projects.

Location: 
William Pitt Union Ballroom

Labor of Cute: Net Idols, Cute Culture, and the Social Factory in Contemporary Japan

Presenter: 
Dr. Gabi Lukacs, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Thu, 02/21/2013 - 17:30 to 19:00

Dr. Luckacs will examine new labor subjectivities such as the net idols that became famous by posting their photos and diaries on the web, cell phone novelists whose novels have recently come to dominate literary bestseller lists, and entrepreneurial homemakers who conjure wealth from day trading. The subjects of mass culture theory, digital media theory, work and play, consumer culture, and Japan in the twenty-first century are also topics for discussion.

To register for the event, visit: www.us-japan.org/jasp/events.html

Location: 
Pittsburgh Athletic Association, Patrician Room (2nd Floor), 4215 Fifth Avenue
Cost: 
Free

Internships and Career Opportunities at the Department of State

Presenter: 
Patricia Guy, State Department Diplomat in Residence
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Thu, 02/07/2013 - 13:00 to 14:00

Patricia Guy, a Diplomat in Residence for the State Department, will visit the University of Pittsburgh to talk about the State Department’s internship program, and will provide information and answer questions about careers and job possibilities with the Department of state.

Location: 
3911 Posvar Hall
Contact Email: 
slund@pitt.edu

The "Other" Bangkok: Chinese Labor, Siamese Poetry, and the Spatialization of Race in late 19th- and early 20th-century Bangkok

Presenter: 
Lawrence Chua, Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian Studies, Department of Art History, Hamilton College
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Mon, 02/25/2013 - 15:00

A campaign emerged in early 20th-century Bangkok which sought to control the acquisition of political power by the city’s growing migrant population and cultivate support for the absolute monarchy. Bangkok eventually developed into two cities that shared the same space: the capital of a sovereign nation-state under the authority of a ‘Thai’ absolute monarchy and a thriving port populated mostly by ‘Chinese’ migrants who were governed by extra-territorial laws.

Location: 
4130 Posvar Hall

Yinzling Foreign Film Night: After Life

Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Thu, 01/31/2013 - 21:00

Yinzling: The University of Pittsburgh Undergraduate Linguistics Club is hosting a Japanese movie night featuring the movie “After Life” (1998, Hirokazu Koreeda), about people who, after death, have just one week to choose one memory to keep for eternity. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Location: 
324 Cathedral of Learning

Negotiating Decay, Debt, and Delay: Speculation as Time-Travel in South India's Grocery Trade

Subtitle: 
Asia Over Lunch Lecture Serices
Presenter: 
Laura C. Brown, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Wed, 02/06/2013 - 12:00 to 13:00

Although they sell vegetables, milk packets, and cigarettes; owners of small roadside grocery shops in southern India might be described as in the business of time-travel. Shopkeepers’ survival depends on their ability to successfully shift objects and obligations between multiple and conflicting temporal systems. Drawing on recordings of interactions gathered between 2005-08, Brown traces how shopkeepers use refrigeration, accounts of debt, and conversations with customers to negotiate and profit from temporal troubles.

Location: 
4130 Posvar Hall
Contact Email: 
asia@pitt.edu

State Office and Wealth Accumulation in Contemporary China: A Social Explanation of "Corruption"

Presenter: 
David L. Wank, Professor of Sociology, Sophia University, Tokyo Japan
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Tue, 02/19/2013 - 16:00

The personal wealth of state office holders and their associates has exploded during the three decades of China’s revived market economy. This is seen in such varied phenomena as the recent reports on the $2.7 billion in assets of Premier Wen Jiabao and family, and the high number and rank of state officials linked to a private firm in the Yuanhua smuggling scandal. How can corruption of this magnitude be explained?

Location: 
3703 Posvar Hall, History Dept. Faculty Lounge

Your Future in Asia

Subtitle: 
The Oral Proficiency Interview in Japanese, Chinese or Korean
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Tue, 02/19/2013 - 16:00 to 18:00

Do you know how to prove how well you speak Japanese, Chinese or Korean? Come learn about the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), one of the most recognized proficiency tests in the U.S., and how to show off your abilities for scholarships, jobs and more! Hear from Pitt instructors and students who have taken the OPI and see a sample interview in Japanese and Chinese.

Location: 
4130 Posvar Hall
Contact Email: 
asia@pitt.edu

International Careers Toolkit Series

Subtitle: 
Teaching English Abroad
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Date: 
Thu, 02/21/2013 - 16:00 to 18:00

Gap year before grad schoo? Need to gain "real world" experience? Learn about working overseas after graduation! This workshop features real life experiences from Pitt alumni teaching in China, Chile, Japan and France. Learn how to prepare for ESL experiences at Pitt and where to look for jobs.

Location: 
4217 Posvar

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