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.
Events in UCIS
Wednesday, April 3 until Thursday, April 3
Tuesday, February 18 until Tuesday, March 18
Join us for a lunch and learn event with Nina Sajić.
Dr. Sajić served as the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to France, UNESCO, Algeria, Monaco, Andorra, and Romania. She was also a foreign policy advisor in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She will be at Pitt to discuss her diplomatic experiences with students and the wider community.
Light lunch will be provided.
Friday, February 28 until Saturday, March 1
Join the Graduate Organisation for the Study of Europe and Central Asia for their 22nd Graduate Student Conference
Saturday, March 1
The Romanian Room Committee invites you to celebrate Mărțișor. Mărțișor is an old Romanian tradition of gifting a red and white string attached to a small piece of jewelry or a flower. Learn the history of Mărțișor and join the members of the Romanian Room committee to make your own and for your friends. Learn more about this Romanian tradition which falls on March 1 of every year during which the gifting of a red and white string attached to a small piece of jewelry, or a flower is believed to bring health and luck to the wearer.
Come enjoy Romanian snacks!
Thursday, March 6
The Euro Challenge is a competition for high school students on European economic and monetary policy. It gives participants the opportunity to learn about the Euro, the single market, and other important concepts central to the European Union and macro/microeconomics.
The PA regional competition is hosted by the University of Pittsburgh.
Sunday, March 9
We love to hate Shakespeare's Richard III, but what do we know about this most infamous of English kings? Did he have a hunched back? Was he a tyrant and a murderer? In a presentation featuring Britsburgh member Andy Kirtland and Felicia Perez of the Youth Shakespeare Society of Pittsburgh, we will compare what we know of Shakespeare's character and the historical King that inspired him. Discover some facts, and fictions, ahead of the Youth Shakespeare of Pittsburgh's upcoming production of Richard III. We will be joined by Izabella Wolfe the plays director to let us know what you can expect at the show. Come and make friends, or enemies, with Richard.
Meet us in the English Nationality Room in the Cathedral of Learning at 3pm on Sunday 09 March for the talk (and across the street for a pint after). The event is free, but space is limited. Please register at www.britsburgh.com.
Monday, March 10
Join us for an upcoming lecture with special guest Dr. Trevor Getz!
Dr. Trevor Getz is a Professor of African and World History at San Francisco State University. He is a historian of 19th century Ghana and its connections to the wider anglophone world. His main areas of focus are social history at the intersection of slavery and marriage and the cultural history of the West African bourgeoisie.
Tina S. Clemente is Professor at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman. She earned her Ph.D. at the School of Economics at the same university. Her research interests include China Studies, Philippines–China economic relations, economic history, and development.
The state of China/Chinese Studies as a field in the Philippines and the corresponding expertise landscape have increasingly generated interest especially owing to Philippine relations with China. In the Philippines, studies on China and the Chinese do not necessarily adhere to strict academic demarcations such as those associated with Sinology, Area Studies, and Chinese Overseas Studies in accordance with civilizational, state, and ethnic interrogations. My discussion begins with the historical interest in the Chinese and proceeds to an exposition on the domains of scholarship, which consists of discussions on academic programs and types of research.
Tuesday, March 11
Join us for an upcoming lecture with special guest Dr. Trevor Getz!
Dr. Trevor Getz is a Professor of African and World History at San Francisco State University. He is a historian of 19th century Ghana and its connections to the wider anglophone world. His main areas of focus are social history at the intersection of slavery and marriage and the cultural history of the West African bourgeoisie.
Stop by the Global Hub to learn more about financial wellness!
Are you an international student at Pitt looking to connect, or interested in connecting with international students? Stop by the Nook in the Global Hub on Tuesdays, between 2 and 4 pm during Spring semester, to chat with OIS Outreach Coordinator Zharia White from the Office of International Services!
Attention: Undergraduate students! 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!
This event will in theme with International Women's day. We will be inviting speakers specifically in International Development sector to give career advice.
Sike, Deborah Nwachinemere is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Meeting for Women in International Careers
Time: Mar 14, 2025 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://pitt.zoom.us/j/96432914892
Meeting ID: 964 3291 4892
In the 1990s, two joint studies by Japanese and U.S. researchers were published: Total War and “Modernization” and Deconstructing Nationality. The continuity between the prewar and postwar periods and the constructability of the concept of nation, as these two studies argue, is already becoming common knowledge. However, the specific constructiveness of the concept of nation in wartime Japan has not been fully explored.
In fact, the wartime period was one of the most inundated periods in the history of Japanese society with the concept of “nation/kokumin,” from “national culture(Kokumin-Bunka),” “national literature(Kokumin-Bungaku),” and “national schools(Kokumin-Gakko)” to “national uniform (Kokumin-Fuku),” “national diet(Kokumin-Shoku),” and “national housing(Kokumin-Jutaku).” What is the meaning of the concept of “nation/kokumin” that appeared so frequently during this period? Does it have any special characteristics that differ from the concept of “nation/kokumin” in other periods?
In this presentation, first, we focus on things related to people's lives, such as national uniform, national diet, and national housing. Second, we will focus on surveys related to people's lives, such as the Survey of Living Expenses and the Survey of the National Physical Fitness. What is unique to the “nation/national” in wartime Japan is neither imagined objects, representations, nor citizenship. It has most to do with mass production technology and standardization. The nation was above all a set of bodies to be quantified, standardized, and governed. The principles of mass production technology were applied to people's lives and their lives were reorganized. And as “citizens,” wartime people were excessively expected to govern their own lives with reference to a certain standard.
On March 11, join us for Irish Heritage Night when we host the Vegas Golden Knights! Featuring a concourse display courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh Nationality Rooms & Intercultural Exchange Programs, be here when we honor the incredible impact of our city’s Irish community and celebrate their rich culture and history.
In celebration of your heritage, lock in special pricing now. Plus, the first 200 community members that purchase tickets through this offer will receive an exclusive Penguins-branded Irish Heritage Hockey Shirt!
To purchase groups of 10 or more tickets or to request additional information, please contact Ryan Clark at (412) 255-1957.
Penguins vs. Golden Knights
Mar 11, 2025 7:00 PM EDT
PPG Paints Arena
1001 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, US
Purchase Deadline: Mar 11, 2025 5:00 PM EDT
Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!
The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Spring 2025, EXCEPT on January 22, February 5, March 4, and March 5.
Wednesday, March 12
Tina S. Clemente is Professor at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman. She earned her Ph.D. at the School of Economics at the same university. Her research interests include China Studies, Philippines–China economic relations, economic history, and development. Dr. Clemente is a former president of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies and the first editor-in-chief of the Chinese Studies Journal. In 2022, Dr. Clemente received the Gawad Tsanselor Sa Natatanging Guro, the most prestigious award for UP Diliman faculty that recognizes excellence in teaching, research, and service.
Notwithstanding different calibrations in dealing with China—scoring a legal victory through the arbitral ruling, cooperating while shelving maritime claims, or posing resistance while engaging more vigorously in building alliances—the main critique on the Philippine security perspective is that it has wide room for improving strategic calculation. The perennial but unresolved question is how the Philippines can navigate its responses to China’s coercive levers. We examine strategies and implications of resilience vis-à-vis vulnerability in considering the options of an economically and militarily weaker country in dispute. We first contextualize the bilateral relations in recent years and the turn of the academic discourse then frame the notion of resilience in a game-theoretic context. We then demonstrate how pay-offs and actions in a multistage bilateral interaction are contingent on sanction-sender types, sanction-receiver’s resilience, and the players’ strategic reckoning of each other. Finally, we analyze the interaction space and particularize the scenario of a resilient Philippines.
Join your classmates for Slovak conversation practice in a fun, relaxed environment!
Join us for an upcoming lecture with special guest Dr. Jaimie Bleck!
Dr. Jaimie Bleck is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. She specializes in African politics with a focus on democratization, civil society, participation, and citizenship. Her research has been funded by grants from the Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, and USAID-DRG.
Noriko Unno, PhD, is an assistant professor at Osaka University. This talk traces the history of cultural interactions between Japan and the Hui people (Sinophone Muslims), an ethnic minority group in the People's Republic of China said to be descended from foreign Muslims who migrated to China from today’s Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia from the seventh to fourteenth century. It reviews the influence of Islam in China on Japanese intellectuals during the Edo period, political and cultural activities of Hui youths studying in Meiji Japan, the Hui people’s responses to Japanese imperialism in the first half of the twentieth century, one contemporary Hui writer’s perception of Japan, and the rising popularity of halal Chinese cuisine in Japan. This overview offers a new perspective on the history of relations between East Asia and Islam by considering the mutual influences on Japan and Muslims in China, as well as Japanese understandings of Chinese and Islamic culture.
“Fugitive Decisions, Free Soil, and Antillean Geopolitics in the 1820s and 1830s”
A symposium based on a pre-circulated chapter draft by Prof. Gunvor Simonsen (Copenhagen University).
Initial comments, Professor Sue Peabody (Washington State University)
To receive the draft chapter, please reach out to Pernille Røge (per20@pitt.edu).
Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 4:30-6:00 p.m.
History Department Lounge (3702 Posvar Hall).
Co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies and the Early Modern Worlds Initiative
Join us on Wednesdays in the Global Hub for casual Portuguese conversation!
Bate-Papo meet on Wednesdays, during Spring 2025, starting February 12 and ending April 16, EXCEPT on March 5.
Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!
The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Spring 2025, EXCEPT on January 22, February 5, March 4, and March 5.
Join the German Club on Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice German speaking and listening skills.
The German Club will meet on Wednesdays during Spring 2025, EXCEPT on January 22, February 5, and March 5.
Thursday, March 13
Our annual Model African Union simulation for local high schools. This year it's bigger than ever!
Sign up to volunteer here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQXgpaVH59cRr7zdSzNEAUeUdvUFX_...
Swahili Level 4 students: Join Swahili instructor Faraja Ngogo on Thursdays at 11 am-12 pm in the Global Hub to practice Swahili.
Join us for an upcoming lecture with special guest Dr. Jaimie Bleck!
Dr. Jaimie Bleck is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. She specializes in African politics with a focus on democratization, civil society, participation, and citizenship. Her research has been funded by grants from the Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, and USAID-DRG.
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.
This event is part of the Eurasian Environments: Climate Justice and Sustainability in Global Context series.
Swedish Speaking Club is a space for practicing Swedish and deepening cultural understanding alongside others who are learning.
As part of the Unmasking Prejudice: Confronting Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Racism Across Europe
Spring Lecture Series:
For about 25 years, a minority security dilemma has been crystalizing in Germany. With increasing Muslim immigration, the state has gradually instituted measures to acculturate this small but growing minority to the official memory culture centered on the Holocaust. It does so in part out a concern with Jewish safety, which is increasingly centered on sensitivities about German support of Israel rather than antisemitic crimes, nearly all of which are committed by Christian Germans. To make Jewish people feel safer, Muslim migrants are made to feel less safe. Conversely, Muslim security is experienced as endangering Jews. Therein lies the dilemma. This development hardened dramatically after October 7. How and why the trilateral relationship between the German state and its two non-Christian minorities issued in a dilemma
rather than reconciliation is the subject of this paper.
About the Speaker:
A. Dirk Moses is the Spitzer Professor of International Relations at the City College of New York. He is author and editor of publications on German history and in Genocide Studies, including Nachdem Genozid: Grundlage für eine neue Erinnerungskultur (2023). His public writings on Germany, Gaza, and Ukraine have appeared in the Geschichte der Gegenwart, the Boston Review, Noema Magazine and Lawfare. He edits the Journal of Genocide Research.
Join the Persian Club for Nowruz Festivities in the Global Hub.
Friday, March 14
Join undergraduate Pitt students for a conversation hour to practice speaking in Hindi and Urdu and connect over shared cultural experiences.
Kya Baat Hai will meet weekly, on Fridays, during the 2024-2025 academic year, EXCEPT on March 7.
Swahili Level 2 students: Join Swahili instructor Faraja Ngogo on Fridays at 4-5 pm in the Global Hub to practice Swahili.
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.
Saturday, March 15
This annual national competition provides US school and college students the opportunity to demonstrate their Russian language knowledge while meeting with other students of Russian and conversing with native Russian speakers. Students will receive recognition for their demonstrated language proficiency, improve their chances of getting international and study abroad scholarships, and enhance their professional resume.
Event date: Saturday, March 15, 2025
Location: 1500, 1501, 1502 Posvar Hall and Zoom
Registration Deadline: January 25, 2025
For more information and to register, please visit: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/creees/events/olympiada
Join the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs and the Hungarian Room Committee, along with the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the European Studies Center, and the Hungarian Program of Less Commonly Taught Languages in the Department of Linguistics to commemorate the 1848 Hungarian Revolution.
Daniel Mikecz, PhD, Fulbright Visiting Professor, at the University of Pittsburgh will talk about the importance of the 1848 revolution in Hungary’s history and the influence of the revolutionary leader, Lajos Kossuth's trip in the United States and the Hungarian '48-ers who joined the Union forces in the Civil War in the United States. A reading of the the Nemzeti dal or "National Song", the patriotic poem written by Sándor Petőfi, will also be shared.
A reception will be held following the program portion in the Frick Fine Arts Building Cloister.
The event is free and open to the public.
Monday, March 17
This is an interactive discussion about the identity of immigrants to the United States. Dr. Nourbakhsh’s personal story spans Iran, the United States, NASA, Silicon Valley entrepreneurship and the life of a university professor. Dr. Nourbakhsh uses his personal background to discuss the blurring of identities for immigrants who dive deep into technology innovation in a world of increasing inequity and inequality.
Tuesday, March 18
Dr. Sajić served as the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to France, UNESCO, Algeria, Monaco, Andorra and Romania. She was also a foreign policy advisor in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She will be at Pitt to discuss her diplomatic experiences with students and the wider community.
Light lunch will be provided.
Responding to the record low birthrate, in 2023, then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida declared Japan “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions.” Seeing this as a crisis of social reproduction, he announced policies to incentivize young people into having children—to reembrace the family as the center of life/livelihood. As sociality continues to downsize in Japan—to single households, solo lifestyles, childless futures—the keynote asks how these changes affect the elderly who once counted on “the family” to both care for and bury them.
Anne Allison’s research on contemporary issues in Japan spans the nightlife, popular culture, Pokémon, sexuality, gender, precarity, and death. She is the author of Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club; Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination; and Precarious Japan. Her most recent book, Being Dead Otherwise, has been awarded the John Whitney Hall Prize for 2025.
Stop by the Global Hub to learn more about financial wellness!
Are you an international student at Pitt looking to connect, or interested in connecting with international students? Stop by the Nook in the Global Hub on Tuesdays, between 2 and 4 pm during Spring semester, to chat with OIS Outreach Coordinator Zharia White from the Office of International Services!
Attention: Undergraduate students! 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!
The Penguins organization is committed to supporting the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community both on and off the ice. Our API Night, in recognition of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month observed in the United States during the month of May, will take place on March 18!
Join us for API Night in person at PPG Paints Arena when the Penguins host the New York Islanders. Featuring a concourse display courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh Nationality Rooms & Intercultural Exchange Programs, be here when we honor the incredible impact of our city’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community and celebrate their rich culture and history. Plus, the first 100 community members that purchase tickets through this special offer will receive a Penguins-branded API Night Rally Towel!
To purchase groups of 10 or more tickets or to request additional information, please contact Kyle Blend at (412) 255-1849.
Penguins vs. Islanders
Mar 18, 2025 7:00 PM EDT
PPG Paints Arena
1001 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, US
Purchase Deadline: Mar 18, 2025 5:00 PM EDT
: Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!
Naila and the Uprising chronicles the remarkable journey of Naila Ayesh and a fierce community of women at the frontlines, whose stories weave through the most vibrant, nonviolent mobilization in Palestinian history-- the First Intifada in the late 1980s. The film uses animation, interviews, and exclusive archival footage. Khushboo Bhutani, PhD student in Film and Media Studies, will introduce the film.
Wednesday, March 19
Join us for a discussion on the growing challenges to democratic ideals in an age of populism, polarization, mis/mal/dis information, and rising authoritarianism. This event will explore the interplay between democratic values and anti-democratic forces, highlighting historical and contemporary movements that both support and erode the democratic project.
Roundtable I: Provocation on Mis/Mal/Dis Information
Roundtable II: Academic Panel
Roundtable III: Provocation on Populism
For more information, visit our website: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/esc/events/ad-mini-symposium
Registration is required
Join your classmates for Slovak conversation practice in a fun, relaxed environment!
Join us on Wednesdays in the Global Hub for casual Portuguese conversation!
Learn about what events, certificates, and concentrations the Center for Latin American Studies offers. Join us for games and free food!
This article is part of an ongoing ethnography of the Japanese television industry focusing on its attempts to experiment with live, interactive content that was manipulable via smart devices, laptops, and remote controls. Based on 18 months of fieldwork in the Japanese television industry in four major TV network offices and two production companies, it also incorporates interviews with more than 30 broadcast company employees. Using two case studies of early interactive television programming to discuss the strategies producers have used to create community and promote identification among audiences of these shows: ‘Arashi Feat. You’ was a live music event that courted a large audience through the involvement of a massively popular boy band and promoted the idea of ‘turning viewers into users’ by allowing them to play musical instruments along with the band. ‘The Last Award’ allowed participants to submit and evaluate each other’s videos live through a dedicated user interface. Through these examples, Rodwell argues that participation alters the nature of television spectacle and results in changes to the way producers address and inscribe audiences as cocreators of content. The rhetoric used by interactive television accordingly defaults to ‘we’ and ‘us’ and features accessible and relatable celebrities as surrogates for the audience.
Elizabeth Rodwell is a media anthropologist who is interested in interactivity, television, emergent technology (in general), and artificial intelligence (specifically). She is also a usability researcher (UX). My first book Push the Button: Interactive Television and Collaborative Journalism in Japan (forthcoming) examines the post-Fukushima tensions in the Japanese journalism and television industries, and seeks to account for the ways that media professionals are responding to increasingly skeptical and distracted audiences. She tracks the global debut of interactive television in Japan– a cutting-edge fusion of mediums that represented the most dramatic departure from existing television technology in several decades.
Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!
Join the German Club on Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice German speaking and listening skills.
Thursday, March 20
Swahili Level 4 students: Join Swahili instructor Faraja Ngogo on Thursdays at 11 am-12 pm in the Global Hub to practice Swahili.
Mangia con noi! Bring your lunch and chat with us! Pitt students only, all levels welcome!
Swedish Speaking Club is a space for practicing Swedish and deepening cultural understanding alongside others who are learning.
This paper analyzes the transnational relationship between European Catholic clerics and the Brazilian working class during the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s. It focuses on "worker priests (padres operarios/curas rojos)," who were part of an international movement of priests who worked in factories and ministered to working-class communities. In Brazil, worker-priests created ecclesiastical communities on the industrial outskirts of Sao Paulo and in Santos, a port region of Sao Paulo state. They were severely persecuted by the military regime.
Film: ELBOW Ellbogen
Film is about a girl named Hazal, who is 17 and lives in Berlin. Her biggest wish is to be given a chance. For her 18th birthday she wants to escape the everyday grind and party with her friends. But a fatal incident changes everything. Hazal is forced to flee.
Asli Ozarslan-Kroenlein
Profession: Writer, Director
Country: Germany
Director ASLI ÖZARSLAN (*1986, Berlin) studied theatre and media at the University of Bayreuth, philosophy at the Université Sorbonne IV in Paris and documentary film directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. INSEL 36 (2014) and her diploma film DIL LEYLA (2016) won numerous awards. With her current debut film project ELLBOGEN she was part of the Torino Film Lab and the mentoring programme Into The Wild.
Join the Persian Club for Nowruz Festivities in the Global Hub.
Friday, March 21
Join undergraduate Pitt students for a conversation hour to practice speaking in Hindi and Urdu and connect over shared cultural experiences.
Swahili Level 2 students: Join Swahili instructor Faraja Ngogo on Fridays at 4-5 pm in the Global Hub to practice Swahili.
Following the keynote address, the German students will present their original research that they conducted as part of completing their capstone seminar.
There will be food and light refreshments
The University Center for International Studies is excited to hold its first annual Qissa (story in Arabic), a celebration of heritage, culture, and personal experiences through storytelling. We invite all Pitt students to share your internationally-focused story using various creative forms and listen to others in this unique performance setting.
Monday, March 24
Join the Global TEACH Project for a special guest lecture with Dr. Oge Ilegbune, the Medical Director of Lakeshore Cancer Center in Lagos, Nigeria! In-person and Zoom attendance are available.
Zoom registration: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/-eyxETWRRvSU5DlcPr3sJA
About Dr. Ilegbune:
Dr. Ilegbune focuses on cancer and non-communicable disease screening, effective service delivery, and patient-centered care. Over time, she expanded her expertise to include strategy, business development, outreach project management, hospital administration, and research. She is currently the Medical Director at Lakeshore Cancer Center.
Learn more about the Global TEACH Project on our website: www.ucis.pitt.edu/africa/global-teach-project
Tuesday, March 25
Please join Pitt Global for a celebration of the Sheth International Achievement Awards as we honor our 2024 recipients:
-Dr. Louis Picard, 2024 Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement recipient
-Dr. Tony Novosel, 2024 Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement recipient
-Divya Nawale, 2024 Sheth International Young Alumni Achievement Award recipient
Join us in celebrating the accomplishments of these prestigious global leaders at an in-person awards ceremony.
Stop by the Global Hub to learn more about financial wellness!
Are you an international student at Pitt looking to connect, or interested in connecting with international students? Stop by the Nook in the Global Hub on Tuesdays, between 2 and 4 pm during Spring semester, to chat with OIS Outreach Coordinator Zharia White from the Office of International Services!
Attention: Undergraduate students! 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!
Frank Lloyd Wright imposed his work to international prominence as a paragon of cutting-edge architecture, becoming a symbol of an entire nation: the United States. In the same way Wright established a new graphic style, an eloquent way to represent architecture that can be considered as an exclusive expression of American culture. This study analyses Wright’s architectural drawings as a specific production that, even if complementary to his better-known design, radiates its own artistic and architectural value.
Cosimo Monteleone is currently an Associate Professor in Representation of Architecture and Descriptive Geometry at the University of Padua (IT). He has been awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh (PA, USA). He is the author of a site-specific anamorphic installation entitled Rainbow at the Museo della Città, Palazzo dei Pio, Carpi (IT). He is a member of international research Visualizing Cities and Digital Bomarzo; indeed, his interest focuses also on digital humanities, stereotomy, geometrical analysis and virtual reconstruction of architecture, digital survey (lidar and photogrammetry), 3D modeling (CAD, BIM), virtual reality and augmented reality, 3D prototyping, file to factory processes, and parametric surfaces for design. He is also author of some books such as Riflessi. Specchi d’anima e d’immagine; Frank Lloyd Wright. Geometria e astrazione nel Guggenheim Museum; La prospettiva di Daniele Barbaro. Note critiche e trascrizione del manoscritto It. IV, 39=5446; Daniele Barbaro’s Perspective of 1568.
Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!
Wednesday, March 26
The Global Appalachian Reading Group examines the complex intersections of regional identity, global influence, and environmental justice as they pertain to Appalachia and its connections to the wider world. The Spring 2025 theme is "Exploring Global Connections and Misconceptions in Appalachia and Beyond."
Session 3 Book: Lark Ascending by Silas House
Copies of the books will be available for those planning to attend the event. Please stop by the Global Studies Center (4100 Posvar Hall) to pick up your copy. If you need the books shipped, that can be arranged.
Note: We are able to fund and distribute books to registrants as funding allows. Registration will remain open after this amount is reached. Registrants will be notified if we are unable to provide them with the reading material.
Join your classmates for Slovak conversation practice in a fun, relaxed environment!
Whether you're a seasoned professional or a Freshman just starting out, having a concise and compelling elevator pitch is essential in today's fast-paced world. An elevator pitch is a brief overview of your background, experience, and goals that you can deliver in the time it might take to ride an elevator - typically 30 seconds or less.
Join us on Wednesdays in the Global Hub for casual Portuguese conversation!
In the interwar period, a Polish Consulate served Pittsburgh's sizeable population with Polish roots. The last consul before the Second World War was Heliodor Sztark, who came to Pittsburgh in 1938, together with his wife, Aniela and their younger daughter Nina. All three became active public figures within the Polish community, the city of Pittsburgh, and Pitt. After the war, Heliodor resigned from his post because he did not agree with the new Polish government.
The family settled in Texas, where they started a new life under very difficult conditions. Their older daughter remained in Poland, but stayed in close contact with the US branch of the family.
The talk will focus on the Sztark family's trajectory before, during, and after their stay in Pittsburgh. Based on material from the Pittsburgh Polish newspaper "Pittsburczanin," interviews with descendants, and documents from archives in the US, Poland, and Germany, Professor Jan Musekamp will demonstrate how an East Central European family navigated realities in independent and wartime Poland, and the Cold War United States.
Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!
Join the German Club on Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice German speaking and listening skills.
Thursday, March 27
Swahili Level 4 students: Join Swahili instructor Faraja Ngogo on Thursdays at 11 am-12 pm in the Global Hub to practice Swahili.
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.
This event is part of the Eurasian Environments: Climate Justice and Sustainability in Global Context series.
Swedish Speaking Club is a space for practicing Swedish and deepening cultural understanding alongside others who are learning.
Meet and Greet with filmmaker:
Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is an Afro-Italian and U.S. multi-hyphenate socially engaged artist, filmmaker and scholar based in New York. His work bridges past and present, exploring identity and race through historical remixing of archival materials. Kuwornu's films have been exhibited at the 60ᵗʰ Venice Art Biennale (2024), Museum of Moving Image (NY), Library of Congress, and international film festivals. More info: https://www.fredkuwornu.com
Light Refreshments will be served.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has resulted in the closure of Russia to western researchers, and a redirection of Russophone scholarship toward Central Asia. How has this phenomenon affected the academic communities and institutions of Central Asia? This workshop will examine several examples of "public history" in the region, including Nazarbayev University's "E-atlas of Kazakhstan's Sacred Geography," Harvard University's Central Asian Archive Project, and the speaker's own oral history project on the Orthodox clergy's role in the promotion of Kazakh language.
As part of the Unmasking Prejudice: Confronting Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Racism Across Europe
Spring Lecture Series
FILM: We Were Here - The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, exhibited in the Central Pavilion directed by Adriano Pedrosa at the 60ᵗʰ International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, sheds light on the overlooked presence of African and Black individuals in Renaissance Europe, highlighting their depiction in masterpieces by some of the era’s most celebrated artists. How did they come to Europe? Why were they portrayed? Were they truly all servants or slaves? If the Black faces portrayed in these Renaissance masterpieces could speak, what would they tell us? More Info: https://www.wewereherethefilm.com
This reading group for K-16 educators explores literary texts from a global perspective. Content specialists present the work and its context, and participants brainstorm innovative pedagogical practices for incorporating the text and its themes into the curriculum. Session 2 book is Hope against Hope by Sheena Wilkinson.
Friday, March 28
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
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.
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.
Join undergraduate Pitt students for a conversation hour to practice speaking in Hindi and Urdu and connect over shared cultural experiences.
Swahili Level 2 students: Join Swahili instructor Faraja Ngogo on Fridays at 4-5 pm in the Global Hub to practice Swahili.
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...
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.
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.
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...
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.
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
Saturday, March 29 until Tuesday, April 1
The American Hellenic Foundation of Western Pennsylvania, The Greek Nationality Room Committee of the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs, and the European Art Center of Greece (EUARCE) Present: Celebrating Greek National Independence Month "Invocations to Liberty" featuring the "Halidon Muse" Ensemble
Poetry by American Women on the Greek Revolution set to modern and classical music
Two concerts: March 29th: Poetry settings in modern music; March 30th in classical music.
The concerts will be broadcast live over the internet:
https://pahellenicfoundation.org/LibertyConcert
at 7:30 PM on Saturday, the 29th of March and at 7:30 PM on Sunday, the 30th of March
Sunday, March 30 until Tuesday, April 1
The American Hellenic Foundation of Western Pennsylvania, The Greek Nationality Room Committee of the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs, and the European Art Center of Greece (EUARCE) Present: Celebrating Greek National Independence Month "Invocations to Liberty" featuring the "Halidon Muse" Ensemble
Poetry by American Women on the Greek Revolution set to modern and classical music
Two concerts: March 29th: Poetry settings in modern music; March 30th in classical music.
The concerts will be broadcast live over the internet:
https://pahellenicfoundation.org/LibertyConcert
at 7:30 PM on Saturday, the 29th of March and at 7:30 PM on Sunday, the 30th of March
Monday, March 31
Undergraduate students pursuing degrees (majors, minors, certificates) in Studio Arts, Political Science, and/or Global Studies are invited to apply for this artist-in-residence experiential learning program. Two artists-in-residence will be selected to create unique artworks for exhibition in the Political Science Department and the Global Studies Center. Material funding (up to $800) will be available, and selected artists will receive a $500 award upon project completion. The theme is "Global Appalachia," which captures the interplay among the deeply rooted socio-political processes, practices, and traditions of the Appalachian region and its dynamic connections to the broader world. It also highlights how the region transcends those boundaries through global influences, migrations, and shared struggles.
Monday, March 31 until Tuesday, April 1
The American Hellenic Foundation of Western Pennsylvania, The Greek Nationality Room Committee of the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs, and the European Art Center of Greece (EUARCE) Present: Celebrating Greek National Independence Month "Invocations to Liberty" featuring the "Halidon Muse" Ensemble
Poetry by American Women on the Greek Revolution set to modern and classical music
Two concerts: March 29th: Poetry settings in modern music; March 30th in classical music.
The concerts will be broadcast live over the internet:
https://pahellenicfoundation.org/LibertyConcert
at 7:30 PM on Saturday, the 29th of March and at 7:30 PM on Sunday, the 30th of March