With each global health crisis, the interconnectedness of populations around the globe becomes more pronounced. Diseases not only affect the health of communities, but they have a profound impact on political, economic, and social stability within countries and regions. This course engages the interdisciplinary nature of global health by approaching the issue through the lens of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) developed by the United Nations. The SDGs range in focus from good health and well-being to gender equality to clean water and sanitation to affordable, clean energy. By engaging the ways that health has a stake in these goals, the course will bring the expertise of faculty from the University of Pittsburgh and CMU as well as practitioners to understand and address the issue surrounding global health from a myriad of perspectives and avenues. With an applied focus, the course will assist students in engaging and advocating for a community on a global health issue through a policy memo. This iteration of the course will examine gender equality and SDG #5.
Events in UCIS
Friday, November 1 until Sunday, May 3
Friday, March 27 until Sunday, May 31
Due to economic development and globalization, cities continue to grow with predictions that 70 of the
world’s population will live in urban areas by the year 2050. This course, then, will view cities as hubs
where patterns, connections, discussions, and the processes shape such issues as social justice, economic
development, technology, migration, the environment among others. By examining cities as a lens, this
sequence of weekend courses encourages students to examine cities as a system for discussing social
processes being built and rebuilt. With an interdisciplinary focus, the course invites experts from the
University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and relevant fields more broadly.
This iteration of the course will explore such topics as: the influence of multinational corporations on
cities; the rise of privacy issues in relation to adoption of technology within cities and homes; the
replacement of human labor and access to employment; the role of technology on urban planning,
among others.
One-credit for PITT students / 3 units
Wednesday, April 1
Part of FRIT's Week of Francophonie. Come create a modern bestiary with Audrée Wilhelmy. This event will be in French.
Designed for juniors, seniors, and graduate students to establish a career direction
and formulate a strategy for securing a full-time position in today's competitive
international and global workplace. Students focus on developing specific
competencies that include career selection, jobsearch activities, resume and
cover letter development, professionalnetworking techniques, behavioral
interviewing skills, and workplace ethicsin preparation for government, business,
and nonprofit sector careers. ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND WORKSHOPS.
Learning Goals
This initiative emphasizes developing readiness to transition to the
workplace. The focus is on the development of self-awareness, interviewing
skills, the acquisition of job-hunting knowledge as well as the formulation
of an action plan to achieve the student's job and career goals.
Learning Outcomes
1. To clarify personal interests, values, skills
and career options.
2. To research/explore various fields for
international and global careers.
3. To create a career search strategy that
can/will be used upon course completion.
4. To present self effectively in an interview or
conversation with potential employers.
UCIS International Career Toolkit Series presents an online event:
Ryan Stannard - Regional Recruiter, Peace Corps
Former Teacher Collaboration and Community Service Volunteer
Join in via Zoom:
Wednesday, April 1st, 2020
3:00-3:50pm, Information Session
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/9238996364
Meeting ID: 923 899 6364
We are opening up the UCIS Professional Development Class to offer additional students to take part online and learn from Ryan. Ryan will discuss his current and prior work in the Peace Corps, requirements for future employees, and key strengths and skills he seeks in Peace Corps applicants. He'll also answer questions.
Please sign up online at:
https://signup.com/go/cTtOnmN
Questions?
Angela Illig
ami17@pitt.edu
The Call of The Sirirí: Birds, Humans, and Sound in Post-Agreement
Colombia
Via Zoom at 4pm: pitt.zoom.us/j/469033895
After the signature of the peace agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP guerrilla in 2016, different Colombian institutions have promoted avitourism, a form of eco-tourism based on birdwatching, as an economic activity that can revitalize local economies after decades of conflict. International institutions and NGOs have pointed out that avitourism simultaneously generates income, empowers local communities, and encourages the conservation of fragile ecosystems. However, avitourism also relies on an epistemology of sound imbricated in notions of difference that separates nature and culture, a binary that allows the commodification of biological diversity to fuel neo-extractivist “green industries.” This presentation introduces an analysis of Ana Maria Romano’s “El Suelo Desde el Viento” and Edson Velandia’s “El Cli-Cli-Clí de Paro” to explore an alternative epistemology of sound connecting culture and nature, human and nonhuman, who coexist in a way that one becomes a part of the other. Such study presents the Colombian case to explore the limits and biases of the uses of notions such as biodiversity within neo-extractivist economies in the Global South, while points to the necessity of understanding and respecting the meaningful ways how different peoples interact with the nonhuman beings around them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Juan Fernando Velasquez is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Michigan Society of Fellows and Assistant Professor in the Department of Musicology in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He also holds a Ph.D. in Musicology with certificates in Latin American and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and an MA. in Musicology of the University Eafit, from Medellín, Colombia. His articles have appeared in journals like Latin American Music Review and the Boletín de Musica de Casa de las Américas, and his book “Los ecos de la villa: La música en los periódicos y revistas de Medellin (1886-1903)” won the fellowship for research in Culture by the Municipio de Medellín (2011).
Among other recognitions, he has received the Fulbright-Mincultura fellowship for Colombian Artists (2012), the Tinker Fellowship (2015), the Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship (2017), and an honorary mention in the Otto Mayer-Serra Award (2018). His new project, “Remapping Urban Sounds: A Cultural and Social History of Music, Sound, Listening, and Urban Modernization in Colombia (1886-1930),” studies sound’s relationship to urban modernization in postcolonial contexts by analyzing questions about privilege, modernity, and ecologies of sound in postcolonial Colombia.
Contact Jennifer Wallace (jlw200@pitt.edu) or Bei Cheng (beicheng@pitt.edu) for specific questions.
Part of FRIT's Week of Francophonie.
A public book event on Wednesday, April 1 at The White Whale Bookstore in Bloomfield.
Hosted by the Dept. of French and Italian, with support from the Year of Creativity, the Honors College, and the Humanities Center.
Questions? Contact Prof. Kaliane Ung