The 2012 Jean Monnet Symposium hosted by the European Union Center of Excellence and European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh will bring together historians and political scientists to discuss empires old and new. Its goal is to advance the current discussion of how to define empire, look at how empires have defined themselves in the past, and build upon our understanding of historical empires to refine new categories of analysis applicable to the European Union of the present.

Amigos del Cine Latinoamericano - Spring 2012 Film Series

Rabia - Film by Sebastián Cordero, produced by Guillermo del Toro.

This riveting romantic thriller will keep you at the edge of your seat. Two lonely Latin American immigrants embark upon a secretive relationship within a run-down mansion fantasizing of the day they can be together.

In the Khmer Rouge’s brief but devastating rule, approximately two million Cambodians died. The regime kept meticulous records, including registration photographs of the 20,000 prisoners tortured at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison.

This talk will consider conversations and experiences with former militia fighters from Lebanon's war between 1975-1990, to argue that fighters do not lose any part of their humanity when they kill and participate in armed warfare. I suggest, rather, that the discourse of humanity and the resort to the notion of dehumanization is a rhetorical device with hegemonic influence in debates and conversations about war and peace. My aim is to provide a critical anthropological approach to peace studies and our understanding of war and its violence.

This lecture critically examines the US approach to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It highlights the consistency between the Bush and Obama Administration’s handling of the peace process. The fight against Islamists, the rhetoric on democracy promotion and the call for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel represent the essential goals of Bush’s policy in the post-September 11th era. These same goals have also shaped the Obama Administration’s perspective on the Middle East.

In recent years, some of the most urgent and highly charged public and political debates in the Anglophone Caribbean have centered on sexual citizenship. The acute homophobia of the dancehall has dominated national and international attention and crafted a region of intolerance and hate crimes. This talk opens up the terms on which Caribbean subjects can participate in global debates about sexuality by shifting discussions away from contesting homophobia towards contesting heteronormativity.

ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE –4pm in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their snack along if you wish and enjoy!

Global civil society has been referred to as the “second superpower.” How is it that civil society groups have been able to challenge the dominance of the world’s military and financial powers? How have they intervened in the global arena to affect global politics? Jackie Smith, a scholar of transnational social movements, and professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh will report on the history of civil society groups’ engagement in the United Nations and how this has shaped the kind of political activism we’re seeing today in the Arab Spring and in the U.S.

Why do post-conflict countries in Africa have double the rates of female legislative representation compared with countries that have not undergone conflict? In this lecture, Professor Tripp draws from her current book project to explore why post-war countries in Africa have been more open to passing legislation and making constitutional changes relating to women's rights. Her study draws from comparative research across Africa as well as fieldwork in Uganda, Liberia, Congo-Kinshasa and Angola.