In this four-part weekend micro-course (spanning four semesters), we will examine the power of technology on humanity and its implications on social justice in four areas: governance, environment, education, and health. Please note that students do not need to complete all four parts and are welcome to participate in any and all micro-course offerings. The focus will be on the impact technology has on the future of schooling and work. This will include a discussion as to how technology can improve the efficiency and safety of the workforce through automation while also creating further divides between those who have educational access and those who do not. The effects of technology on education and the common language of the world, including how it impacts native languages and cultures, will also be discussed. This course requires a permission number that will be provided by contacting the instructor, Veronica Dristas, at dristas@pitt.edu.

This workshop session will share the World Historical Gazetteer website, its interactive features, and resources to show how to incorporate the study of place names into course curriculum. The World Historical Gazetteer is a digital project that shows how ideas about places are embedded in their names. Ideas and actions change names and meanings associated with them. This workshop will illustrate this concept by introducing new classroom technology. Workshop participants will learn about the inception of and rationale for the creation of the World Historical Gazetteer and its teaching page focused on topics related to Asian Studies. They will then be walked through the features of the website including the search function for historical place names and collections of place name data. Participants will be asked to engage with a new pilot feature, the self-authored collections, which will allow them to create their own custom map of places that are important to them. Participants will be invited to offer suggestions for place name searches and will also be invited to explore individual lesson plans and supporting materials on the website.

Syllabus Design and Critical Pedagogies in the Classroom: How Do We Teach Differently? is the fifth panel of the Decolonization in Focus Series.

The Russian war in Ukraine has had innumerable impacts, from the personal to the political, local, national and global. One of the many sea changes wrought by the war has been the reckoning within Slavic/Russian & Eurasian Studies over the outsized role Russia has played and continues to play in the field and what could and should be done about it. The invited panelists in this series will consider the relationships of power that have long dominated the region, how they have impacted the field of study, and what, if anything, could and should be done about it.

The series will consist of six wide-ranging panels featuring speakers from various disciplines and institutions. Panelists and participants will be encouraged to consider why decolonizing Russian & Eurasian studies matters, how to implement concrete change in their classrooms, and how to conceive of the future of expertise within the field. All sessions will be convened using Zoom, live-streamed via YouTube, and recorded to be made available for later viewing.

Are you looking to gain experience that will help prepare you for a globally-connected job market? Stop by Drop-In Hours to learn more about getting the Global Distinction added to your academic transcript, receiving special recognition at graduation, and standing out to prospective employers!

Soviet ideology treated religion as an enemy, a tool of oppression and an expression of backwardness. Militant atheism, the prohibition of religious rituals, and the repression of religious communities aimed to create a secular, rational, and scientific society. Yet, religion mattered in Soviet people’s lives. And with institutional religion restricted, many people expressed their spirituality through “lived religion” - the practice of religion and spirituality in everyday lives. What were the practices of lived religion in the context of state socialism? And how did it converge and diverge with the return of institutionalised religion and spiritual lift after the collapse of communism? REEES Spring 2023 Series, Religion in (Post-Socialism) Societies, will explore the role of religion in socialist and post-socialist societies in eight online discussions on religion and its relations to repression, nation-building, indigenous cultures, and memory.

This is a part of REEES’s Spring 2023 lecture series.

Join the Hindustani Club for weekly conversations on Fridays at 5:30-6:30 pm!