In the spring of summer of 1954, Chinese gathered in lecture halls, classrooms, factory workshops and other venues to talk about the revolution. This was not, to be sure, the intention of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which wanted to use the constitution to consolidate its power and legitimacy. However, when the party asked people to raise questions about, and suggest revisions to, the draft Constitution, it allowed them to raise critical issues about the nature of the revolutionary process and China’s future.

A CONFERENCE FOR GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ORGANIZED BY THE DEPARTMENTS OF CLASSICS, THEATRE ARTS AND ENGLISH/ FILM STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Professor Stern’s work spans the Andes, Mexico, and Chile from colonial times to the present. His most recent books are: Remembering Pinochet’s Chile: On the Eve of London, 1998 (2004), which received an honorable mention for the Bryce Wood Award of the Latin American Studies Association; Battling for Hearts and Minds: Memory Struggles in Pinochet’s Chile, 1973-1988 (2006), which was awarded the 2007 Bolton-Johnson Prize of the Conference on Latin American History; and Reckoning with Pinochet: The Memory Question in Democratic Chile (2010).

The European Union Center of Excellence & European Studies Center is pleased to present the first Spring 2014 Conversations on Europe Videoconference.
Panelists will discuss the 2004 enlargement, which witnessed the growth of the EU from 15 member states to 25, and assess the impact of that expansion on the entering member states and the institutions of the European Union.

Professor Cabot reflects on how asylum, humanitarian aid and radical migrant politics reconfigure the relationship between rights and political recognition, amid rapidly changing conceptions of citizenship in Greece. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2005 and 2011, Dr. Cabot shows how humanitarian aid encounters provide venues for dialogical forms of negotiation, miscommunication, recognition, and misrecognition between aid workers and clients, as well as for potentially transformative social ties.

Ambassador Pavilionis visits the Center to reflect on the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union—the first time the Presidency has been held by a state that emerged from the USSR--and to share his ideas about the future of the EU and Lithuania’s relationship with its fellow EU member states. Refreshments will be served.

Professor Culpepper is a Professor of Political Science at the European University Institute in San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy. He is visiting the University of Pittsburgh as a candidate for the William Dietrich Chair in Political Science.

Including comments, discussion and observations by Dr. Bob Donnorummo

Previous research has found that among language students who study under the performed culture approach (PCA), the amount of time spent studying outside of class is negatively correlated with in-class performance (Curtin 2012, Luft, 2007). The current study investigates whether or not it is because lower performing students are overemphasizing form and neglect focusing on meaning during their out-of-class study that they were found to spend more time studying than higher performing students.

Annunziata (Ann) Ugas, a visiting MA-level student from the University of Cagliari in Italy (Sardegna) and Center Associate within the European Union Center of Excellence, has been working on her translation studies while at the University of Pittsburgh. She will offer a talk based on her research. She will discuss the challenges of translating a parodic text (Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody), and Professor Dennis Looney (French & Italian) and Professor Carol Bové (English) will respond to Ann’s presentation.