The single fossil site Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia, rivals numerous sites in Tanzania and East Africa not only in geological age, 1.85-
1.78 million years ago, but also and especially in morphological diversity of human fossils. Recent research has demonstrated that although brief, the geological history of the site was not, as might be expected, relatively uniform, but rather very complex. This interesting and unique situation impacts interpretation of the human remains and, more broadly, raises important questions about the interpretation of human evolution during this period.

This four-month research project explores transnational cultural policy transfer, focusing specifically on arts funding in the U.S. and in the Czech Republic. It evolved as a reaction on the tendency of Czech arts managers and cultural policy makers to learn from the American way of arts funding and wide-spread efforts to bring more private and corporate funds into the Czech arts and cultural sector to replace dependency on the Government funding. However, these efforts have not achieved significant success so far.

Mircea Geoana served as President of the Romanian Senate from 2008 to 2011 and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party from 2005 to 2011. In 2009 he was a candidate for President of the country. He has served as Ambassador to the United States and as Chair in Office of the OSCE. Goeana’s views on foreign policy, transitional economies and globalization have been featured in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Atlantic, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, CNN, BBC, PBS, Bloomberg, TV5 and Fox Business.

Stay tuned for fun events all week!

This is a reception to honor the inaugural recipients of two awards created by Dr. and Mrs. Jagdish Sheth KGSB ’62 & ’66. The winners to be announced are Dr. Katheryn Linduff, who will receive the Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement and Ms. Divia Thani, who will receive the Sheth International Young Alumni Achievement Award. In addition, we will announce the winners of the Study Abroad-OIS photo contest and recognize the International Fulbright Scholars at Pitt at the beginning of the reception.

Roger Kubarych is the national intelligence officer for economic issues at the U.S. National Intelligence Council, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Before joining the NIC, he was the Henry Kaufman adjunct senior fellow for international economics and finance at the Council on Foreign Relations. Until 2009, he also served as chief U.S economist of UniCredit Global Research, part of UniCredit Markets and Investment Banking.

For many US-based undergraduate students, International Education is realized through studying abroad. There is an enduring belief on the part of parents, students, language educators and program directors alike, that students benefit enormously from studying abroad. People strongly believe that time spent abroad benefits students both culturally and linguistically. This belief has motivated a significant amount of research in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), which has been devoted to understanding more about the role of the study abroad context in language learning.

Dr. Tod Swanson, owner of the Andes and Amazon Field School and Faculty Director of the Pitt in Ecuador program will be visiting Pitt on 15 November. He will be hosting an informal information session for the program from 2-3 pm. This is a great opportunity for students that are interested in the program to ask questions regarding the program, the field school, the courses and Ecuador. For more information please contact the Pitt in Ecuador program manager, Tiffany Martin @tsm3@pitt.edu

Join us in room 114 of the O'Hara Student Center from 7-9 pm for a showing of the movie "Los abrazos rotos" (Broken Embraces). This Spanish film follows a blind writer as he faces the problems of his past. Check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks0QxShQgkc