On January 17th,2012, the European Union Center of Excellence/European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh will host an interactive videoconference devoted to the current European financial crisis. To be held from 12-1:30 p.m. in 211 David Lawrence Hall, the session is entitled “Is the Future of the Eurozone the Future of Europe?” This is the first in a series of “Conversations on Europe,” in which participants and audiences will be linked across several sites by video. This first session will feature some of the country’s top experts on the European Union, including Dr.

Olga Klimova is a PhD candidate at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her Specialist Degree in Cultural Studies from Belarusian State University in Minsk, Belarus, her MA in Popular Culture from Brock University in Canada, and an MA degree in Russian Literature from the University of Pittsburgh. Olga has taught a number of film and gender courses at the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University, and language, literature, and culture courses at the University of Pittsburgh’s Slavic Department.

Professor von Dirke is developing a two-semester course sequence entitled "German for Social Scientists." The first part is largely historical and the second will be more theoretical with a political science/sociology orientation. The course will be pitched to facilitate the transition from third to fourth year language level. It is also designed to allow students to develop the semantic repertoire (specific social science terminology, for example) necessary to read subject-specific academic texts.

Trust in political institutions is one of the key elements which make representative democracies work. Trust creates a connection between citizens and representative political institutions. Democratic governments which enjoy a large degree of trust also tend to have higher degrees of legitimacy and policy efficacy. In Europe's multi-level governance structure, it is imperative to learn more about the determinants of trust in EU institutions. With the increasing salience of EU issues, are domestic proxies still a key determinant of evaluating EU institutions?