Events in UCIS

Wednesday, April 3 until Thursday, April 3

12:00 pm Lecture
Yellow Peril in Vladivostok: The Chinese Diaspora in Russia and the Soviet Union
Location:
4217 Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center, Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies, European Union Center of Excellence and European Union Studies Association along with Department of German
See Details

Dr. Urbansky discusses the challenges faced by Chinese immigrants during the late Tsarist Empire and early Soviet Union, highlighting the racial and cultural prejudices that fueled hostilities in urban settings. His analysis explores how these early interactions shaped the experiences and perceptions of Chinese communities in a rapidly changing socio-political landscape.

Friday, March 28

(All day) Symposium
European and Eurasian Undergraduate Research Symposium 2025
Location:
Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies and European Studies Center along with University Center for International Studies; Graduate Organization for the Study of Europe and Central Asia (GOSECA); Consortium for Educational Resources on Islamic Studies (CERIS); Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
See Details

The European and Eurasian Undergraduate Research Symposium is an annual event since 2002 designed to provide undergraduate students, from the University of Pittsburgh and other colleges and universities, with advanced research experiences and opportunities to develop presentation skills. The event is open to undergraduates from all majors and institutions who have written a research paper from a social science, humanities, or business perspective focusing on the study of Eastern, Western, or Central Europe, the European Union, Russia, or Central Eurasia.

After the initial submission of papers, selected participants are grouped into panels according to their research topics. The participants then give 10- to 15-minute presentations based on their research to a panel of faculty and graduate students. The presentations are open to the public.

SYMPOSIUM: Friday, March 28, 2025

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, January 10, 2025

https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/creees/urs

QUESTIONS? Contact Zita Tóth-Shawgo

SPONSORS
Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Consortium for Educational Resources on Islamic Studies
European Studies Center
University Center for International Studies
Graduate Organization for the Study of Europe and Central Asia
Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

2:45 pm Lecture
Keynote Address: Russian Orthodox Sacred Objects in Central Asia: A Legacy of Imperialism?
Location:
5601 Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies and European Studies Center along with Consortium for Educational Resources on Islamic Studies, Graduate Organization for the Study of Europe and Central Asia and Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
See Details

Orthodox Christianity first came to Central Asia along with the Russian conquest in the 19th century. Along with Slavic settlers came Orthodox sacred objects, such as miraculous icons and the relics of saints. Churches, monasteries, and parish communities were build around these objects. During the colonisation process, control over Orthodox sacred objects was contested by the imperial regime, settler communities, and the native population. These objects ultimately became targets of violent conflict during the anti-colonial uprising of 1916, and the revolutionary violence and terror of the following decade. The physical survival of the Orthodoxy in Central Asia was possible due to the collaborative efforts of both settlers and natives, despite the efforts of the colonial regime to utilise the Church for the consolidation of Russian rule. The Orthodox objects and spaces that dot the landscape today comprise part of Central Asia's shared cultural heritage.

3:30 pm Lecture
Telling the Multiple Histories of Taiwan
Location:
Hill Library Archives & Special Collections Instruction Room, 3rd Floor
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center along with University of Pittsburgh Library System's East Asian Library and Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies
See Details

A presentation by Dr. Lung-chih Chang, Director of National Museum of Taiwan History, that will focus on the exhibitions and publications of the National Taiwan Museum of History as key examples, exploring contemporary Taiwan's collective memory and public discourse.

4:00 pm Student Club Activity
Kya Baat Hai! Conversation Hour
Location:
Global Hub
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Kya Baat Hai!
See Details

Join undergraduate Pitt students for a conversation hour to practice speaking in Hindi and Urdu and connect over shared cultural experiences.

4:00 pm Student Club Activity
Swahili Level 2 Conversational Hours
Location:
Global Hub
Sponsored by:
Center for African Studies and Global Hub along with Less Commonly Taught Languages Center
See Details

Swahili Level 2 students: Join Swahili instructor Faraja Ngogo on Fridays at 4-5 pm in the Global Hub to practice Swahili.

4:00 pm Information Session/Presentation
Risk Assessment Strategies for Studying Abroad: Practical Advice for Trans, Queer, and 2SLGBTQIA+ Students - Part 2
Location:
802 William Pitt Union
Sponsored by:
Center for African Studies, Director's Office, Office of International Services and Global Experiences Office along with Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program
See Details

Are you in the Trans, Queer, or 2SLGBTQIA+ community and want to travel abroad? Are you a student, faculty, or staff member in these communities who has traveled abroad previously? Join us for our second discussion on traveling abroad and risk assessment, where we will discuss how the University conducts risk-assessment on behalf of students and share ways we navigate safety as individuals.

Refreshments provided!

Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdu9undw8VABt0SfeHRDcFxDJNJwQw...

4:15 pm Lecture
Experiments in Clean Living? Group Houses as Radical Activism in 1970s West Germany
Location:
Wesley Posvar, Room 5601
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies, European Studies Center and European Union Center of Excellence
See Details

Please note a change of time:
Keynote Speaker for the Undergraduate Research Symposium:

The Discussion will explore one of the means by which primarily young people in West Germany attempted to “revolutionize” everyday life and beyond, through new, explicitly political forms of cohabitation designated Wohngemeinschaften (WGs). WGs served as critical hubs of more conventional popular politics of the era, but also housed intense experiments in remaking the self and relations with others, transcending the nuclear family and the centrality of the couples relationship, and working through ideas and convictions across populations often conceived as incompatible. Part of broader efforts to remake German society from the bottom up, these experiments mark one site of successful youth efforts to transform the world around them.

About the Speaker:
Belinda Davis is a professor of history at Rutgers University and director of the Rutgers Center for European Studies. She is author or co-editor of five books, including the coedited Social Movements After ’68: Selves and Solidarities in West Germany and Beyond (2022); The Internal Life of Politics: Extraparliamentary Opposition in West Germany, 1962-1983 (forthcoming with Cambridge). She is currently completing work on Voices of the Organized Poor: Learning from the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign’s Everyday Struggles for Survival and Alternative Futures; and working on an environmental history of modern Europe for Cambridge University Press. She is a member of the Rutgers team participating in the Jean Monnet-funded ValEUs grant, of which the University of Pittsburgh is also a consortium member.

4:30 pm Deadline
LatinxConnect Conference Proposals
Sponsored by:
Center for Ethnic Studies Research and Center for Latin American Studies along with Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
See Details

There is no cost to attend the conference, and all are welcome to participate and submit proposals. We welcome all members of the global community to submit proposals for the 2025 Latinx Connect conference. Proposals are accepted for: workshops, panels/panel discussions, lightning round talks, and virtual poster presentations. The deadline to submit a proposal is extended to March 28, 2025.

About the Conference:

The Latinx Connect Conference aims to move us beyond “celebrating” Latinxs, calling for empowerment and justice for Latinx communities, who face numerous inequities in the US and across the world, particularly for those at marginalized intersections of Latinx identity (e.g., Afro, Indigenous, Queer, Trans*, Undocumented).

The theme of the conference this year is: ¡Com(o)unidad! (Com)unidade, (Comm)unity: State of the People. The Latinx Connect conference will bring together students, educators, community leaders, and political advocates to dialogue about Latinidad and envision ways to empower and support thriving futures, both near and distant, for diverse Latinx communities at local, national, and global levels.

5:00 pm Workshop
The Palaver: Leveraging AI in Academia
Location:
4165 Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Center for African Studies
See Details

They say AI may not replace you, but it will replace those who do not know how to use it. Come learn how to best use AI in academia without compromising academic integrity!

Dinner will be served.

RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSes7FPRTkOD27mNWr-wtu0VzR6ASWfp...

6:00 pm Student Club Activity
AddVerse
Location:
Global Hub
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Addverse Poesia
See Details

Join Addverse, a transcultural, multilingual, and intergenerational poetry organization, for weekly meetings in the Global Hub.

Addverse will meet weekly, on Fridays, during Spring 2025, EXCEPT on January 24 and March 7.

7:00 pm Performance
Women's Bandura Ensemble of North America
Location:
Bellefield Hall
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies along with Department of Music, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
See Details

The Women's Bandura Ensemble of North America is coming to Pittsburgh! Join us in Bellefield Hall on March 28, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. for beautiful traditional Ukrainian music. Free and open to the public