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.
Mangia con noi! Bring your lunch and chat with us! Pitt students only, all levels welcome!
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently predicted that global average temperatures will rise 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels in the mid-2030s. Over the last decades, a global network of scholars, policy makers, activists, and others have organized to offer ways to mitigate and even reverse the effects of climate change. What offramps can these solutions and movements offer our collective humanity?
“Eurasian Environments” seeks to provide some reflections to mark the UN’s 2024 Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. This series will examine social justice and sustainability efforts to address climate change by putting scholars of Eurasia in conversation with their peers specializing on Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The series will comprise six events that will illuminate the challenges and possible solutions to climate change in Eurasia in regional and global contexts.
Swedish Speaking Club is a space for practicing Swedish and deepening cultural understanding alongside others who are learning.
Current FLAS students networking event with FLAS alumni. Connect, explore VR, create custom stickers or keychains, and craft unique buttons—all while sharing ideas and building your professional network!
The disappearance of Central Asia's Aral Sea is seen as one of the worst environmental catastrophes in recent history. This paper, which draws from a book project on the disaster, Aral: Life and Death of a sea, focuses on the fate of the Aral Sea and its people in the Soviet Union's last years (1998-1991). It examines the far-reaching consequences of the sea's loss for local residents, as well as why Moscow failed to take any meaningful action to address the disaster.
2025 European Union Film Festival
Journey to Utopia (Demark), 2020, 88 MIN
Directed by Erlend E. Mo
Danish language with English subtitles
Feeling desperate about climate change, filmmaker Erlend, opera singer Ingeborg and their children leave their farm to join an ecological experiment: Project Permatopia. The goal is to become fully self-sufficient. But the reality is much more difficult – bordering on disastrous. Will they give up?
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
“The world needs music and art to help solve some global issues more than ever. If leaders and people are looking for happiness, sustainability, justice and hope, they shall look to music and art.” - Sean Gao
For 30 years, Sean Gao has been a global engagement professional and an environmental artist who is an advocate for the sustainability of performing art, quality education and environmental justice and policy.
Humans have always been a musical species from the beginning of time, and Sean believes music is from the people and for the people. This student-centered and audience-centered musical conversation will feature instrumental and vocal music from the East and West to inspire teachers and students about teaching and learning Asian content. The guest artists include members of his world traveling 6-WIRE trio and others.
Promoting Asian American music and art has been a shared artistic goal since Sean’s first day of college (U of Delaware) teaching career at 9am ET on September 11, 2001.
2025 European Union Film Festival
Double Feature:
6:00 PM
Feathers or Glamour (Estonia)
Estonian urban chicken “farming.” Chickens as pets in bedazzled diapers. It is a short film.
6:30 PM
Flowers of Ukraine (Ukraine/Poland), 2024, 70 MIN
Ukrainian language with English subtitles
***with Director Adelina Borets and Producer Glib Lukianets present for Q&A.
Goats and chickens, tomatoes and cucumbers, are in the middle of the city, and Natalia protects her space in the heart of Kyiv. The fight against gentrification takes on a new front with the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Polish director Adelina Borets traveled to the capital of Ukraine to follow one of the city’s most colorful characters. In her garden, Natalia raises not just vegetables but also goats and chickens. Her garden happens to be in the middle of a block of soviet style buildings in the heart of Kyiv. The 67-year-old force of a person has been fighting gentrification and investors. They want her plot to build another building. Facing pressure from the developers and also from her own neighbors, Natalia stands her ground. The confrontation takes on a whole new dimension with the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now, the battle to protect her garden becomes a battle to preserve an entire way of life.
2025 European Union Film Festival
Next to Nothing/Tyle Co Nic (Poland), 2024, 93 MIN
Directed by Grzegorz Debowski
Polish language with English subtitles
A group of farmers organized a protest in front of the house of an MP who, contrary to previous promises, voted against their interests. At the same time, the body of one of the local farmers is found. Everyone suspects the leader of the protest, Jarek, even though the deceased was his closest friend. The man begins his own investigation, which leads him to find out the true causes of the deceased's death and, at the same time, verifies the attitudes of people around him.
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
