As part of our Year of Memory and Politics Series, the ESC is pleased to welcome Peter J. Verovšek as a Jean MonnetCenter of Excellence speaker. Thirty years after 1989 - and15 years since the first postcommunist states joined the EU - European memory is still divided by the faultlines of the Cold War. Whereas the West’s historical imaginary is based on the traumas of Nazism associated with 1945, Central Europe’s is dominated by the legacy of communism signified by 1989. These differing understandings of the past have resulted in divergent conceptions of democracy.

This month’s Conversation on Europe invites a panel of experts to update us on the continually changing circumstances surrounding Brexit. At the time of the printing of this flyer, the British withdrawal from the EU deadline is scheduled for January 31st, but after so many postponements and delays, it is anyone’s guess whether or not that will happen. Join us for an up-to-the-minute assessment of the current outlook for Brexit. Audience participation is encouraged

To participate remotely, contact irm24@pitt.edu.

How have German cities changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall? Why is Germany rebuilding its palaces? Join us for a discussion of these questions and more!

As part of our Year of Memory and Politics and 1989 Series, the ESC, in cooperation with REEES, is pleased to welcome Maria Todorova as a Jean Monnet Center of Excellence speaker. Based on her forthcoming book on the perceived “golden age” of the socialist idea, Dr. Todorova will present the results of her research into a rich prosopographical database of circa 3500 biographies of people born in the 19th century.

In cooperation with the Department of German’s German Campus Weeks programming, and as a part of the University Center for International Studies Global 1989 Series, this month’s Conversation will discuss the legacies of the two Germanies that existed between 1949 and 1990.  Thirty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, do differences between east and west still persist in Germany?

To participate remotely, contact irm24@pitt.edu.

Join us for a screening (with English subtitles)and discussion led by film expert Stephen Brockmann (Carnegie Mellon University). Goodbye, Lenin! (2003) was directed by Wolfgang Becker. In this comedy/drama, a dedicated young man, Alex (Daniel Brühl), recreates East Germany in their 77m2 apartment to protect his socialist mother Christiane (Katrin Sass) from the shock of the fall of the Berlin Wall! Can he pull off this elaborate scheme knowing that the slightest shock could prove fatal? Alex strives to keep the fall of the GDR a secret for as long as possible.