The pre-circulated text for discussion in this seminar will be Professor Ng's forthcoming article, "Dutch Wars, Global Trade, and the Heroic Poem:
Dryden's Annus Mirabilis (1666) and Amin's Sya'ir Perang Mengkasar (1670)." The essay is attached.

BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Ng is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma.

"You taught me language, and my profit on't/ Is, I know how to curse," thus Shakespeare's Caliban accused his master Prospero of linguistic colonialism. But how accurate was this picture of transnational communication? When Europeans entered the sphere of the Indian Ocean, in what language or languages did they speak? This paper considers early modern European translingual exchanges with Southeast Asia, the aim of European long-distance voyaging as the ultimate source of sought-after spices, examining in particular the role of Malay, a lingua franca of the spice trade, as a global language.

Jan Techau is director of Carnegie Europe, the European Centre of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Techau is a noted expert on EU integration and foreign policy, transatlantic affairs, and German foreign and security policy. Prior to his appointment at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Techau served at the NATO Defense College’s Research Division from February 2010 until March 2011.

With financial crises looming in Europe, the world is bracing for new shocks. How will it all play out? Will the euro and the European Union survive? These and many other questions engage students at the University of Pittsburgh. Join us to learn about some of the initiatives that Pitt graduate students from varying disciplines are creating to bring the EU to campus (or bring the campus to the EU)! Don’t miss out on this chance to meet colleagues who have similar research, professional or extracurricular interests in the EU. And, of course, pizza will be served.

Paul Adams is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. His research interests center around the relations between the European Union and Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and the Microstates of Europe. He has also written articles on corporatism and comparative politics. Dr. Adams will be presenting this lecture, which is also on the program for the 2012 International Studies Association Convention in San Diego in April 2012.

Lunch will be served.

Kurt Riechenberg, Visiting Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, is a German lawyer and Senior Legal Secretary (Clerk) to Judge Silva de Lapuerta at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. He joined the Court in 1983 and was Clerk to three Judges until 1998, when he became Chief of Staff to the President of the Court, a position he held until taking his current post in 2003.

Lunch will be provided.

"The Clock and The Tree of Life: Contemporary Cinema Art," Pittsburgh Film Studies Colloquium

Terry Smith, FAHA, CIHA, is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory in the Department of the History of Art and
Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, and Distinguished Visiting Professor, National Institute for Experimental Arts, College of Fine Arts,

Work-in-Progress Series, "Commemorating Communist East Germany in the Berlin Republic," Katrin Mascha (ABD)

Work-in-Progress Series, "Soccer, its Fans and its Nation in German Literature and Film," Gavin Hicks (ABD)