Every year, the Asian Studies Center in partnership with the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania hosts a Japanese Speech Contest in the William Pitt Union with over 100 participants. This year's contest will be the first open to middle school students and will focus on the theme "Sports in Japan." Students will share an original speech or poster to compete for prizes. We are seeking volunteers to help facilitate cultural activities on Friday, March 6th.

This special event is a screening of the 2006 digitally restored print of a A Throw of Dice (director Franz Osten), a 1929 silent Indian film based on a story from the Mahabharata. The film follows two kings as they vie for the love of a hermit's daughter, the beautiful Sunita. This unique historical gem will be accompanied live by a musical score created for the film by New York jazz artist Rez Abbasi and his quartet. He composed the score on behalf of the New York Guitar Society in 2019 and subsequently released it as an album from Whirlwind Records.

One of the challenges that language professionals face in our increasingly diverse communities is establishing a balance between diversity and language standards. While Standard Japanese can be considered a common language to interact with the majority of Japanese speakers who may not be accustomed to nonnative speech (ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, 2012), the strict requirement to follow the monolingual standard may disregard the legitimacy of multilingual speakers, including nonstandard dialect speakers.

Featuring Anne Prescott on the new koto generously donated to Pitt by Dr. Linda Ehrlich, Professor Emerita, Case Western Reserve University. Yuko Eguchi Wright and Devon Tipp will also be performing.

“Constitutional morality” has become a central term in Indian jurisprudence over the past decade, particularly in
cases involving LGBT rights, naming a distinctive set of constitutional values including tolerance of difference and
respect for pluralism and individual rights. The term was first used in this context by B.R. Ambedkar in 1948, in the
debates over the draft constitution, although he defined it differently: Ambedkar’s constitutional morality was

Join Viveka Mandava, Religious Studies with honors/Global Studies/Political Science at University of Pittsburgh, for a Q&A session to learn about what they are doing and how they go there following their time at Pitt.

Join Cyndee Pelt, seasoned management and policy leadership professional, as she shares her experience of serving in nonprofits and the U.S. government overseas and in Washington, D.C. Topics will include the benefits of a nonprofit vs a government career, crafting a federal resume, managing USAJOBS.gov, and professionalism tips for each setting.

Wednesday, February 26, 2020
3-4pm
4130 Posvar Hall

Please sign up for the event below:
https://signup.com/go/EdghNxu

Join Aly Yingst, Biological Sciences and BPhil/IAS/Global Studies and current PhD student at the University of Iceland, in a discussion about how to prepare for graduate school and life abroad.

Since graduating, Yingst has completed a Fulbright-funded Master's degree in Iceland, traveled the world working as a lecturer on expedition cruise ships. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Global Studies.