Register here.

Come brush up on your Korean skills in a casual, out of the classroom environment!

No other industry had more profound impact on the environment and communities of northern Vietnam than coal mining. Since the French discovery of the Quang Yen coal basin in the 1880s, Tonkin, a French protectorate in northern Vietnam, had risen to become one of the world’s largest coal exporters. However, as in many other parts of the world, coal mining also denuded forests, fashioned massive open-pit wastelands, polluted the air and water, and created some of Vietnam’s most troubling and enduring environmental problems. This presentation will explore how the coal mining-driven processes of land acquisition and exploitation not only altered the physical and ethnic landscape of Vietnam but also led to conflicts between big coal companies, the colonial administration and local communities.

This paper pushes back against the pervasive masculinist gendering of mobility in the emerging field of “InterAsian” studies. Existing research has focused on the movements of mobile men, a framework that risks naturalizing gendered notions of female stasis. In contrast the paper argues for the need to reconceptualize the concept of mobility, and the archives where we look for its traces, to capture the modes through which women travelled InterAsian spaces. The paper explores preliminary strategies for pursuing this wider project through a close study of the life and legacies of Janbai, the matriarch of a family of Khoja-Muslim merchants who built substantial religious, economic, and cultural influence across the Indian Ocean. Scholars have largely overlooked Janbai in favor of her more well-known husband, Tharia Topan, who is considered a pioneer of commerce and important political intermediary between Indian traders, British colonial officials, and the Omani rulers of Zanzibar. Tharia’s presence, and Janbai’s near absence, from the existing historiography obscures Janbai’s own substantial contributions to the family’s transregional networks of influence, both economic and religions. The paper reconstructs these circuits by locating Janbai’s legacies in under-used archives, including court records, family papers, photographs, and jewelry.

Julia Stephens is an associate professor of history at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Her research focuses on how law has shaped religion, family, and economy in colonial and post-colonial South Asia and in the wider Indian diaspora. Her first book, Governing Islam: Law, Empire, and Secularism in South Asia, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. She is currently working on a book entitled Worldly Afterlives: Tracing the Imperial Roots of India’s Global Diasporas, which is under contract with Princeton University Press. The project traces the lives of Indian migrants through the material and immaterial legacies that they left behind—from property inheritances to ghost stories. Research for the project has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, the Mellon Foundation, the Centre for History and Economics, and the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis. She has also been recognized for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education by the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University. To register click here

Join Brazil Nuts for their weekly Portuguese conversation hour at all levels!

Join members of the French Club to and have casual conversation in French! All levels welcome.

For the 2021-22 academic year, the European Studies Center has announced its annual programmatic theme: “Recovering Europe.” As Europe recovers from COVID-19, the question of the viability of vaccine passports arises. This roundtable will address the ethical, legal, and digital plausibility of digital vaccine passports for travel across state borders in Europe. The roundtable will be hosted by European Studies Center Director Jae-Jae Spoon. Joining in the discussion will be: Sarah Chan, University of Edinburgh; Alex John London, Carnegie Mellon University; Ana Beduschi, University of Exeter.

Audience participation will be encouraged.
Panelists will be joining remotely.

#CoE

Considering a BPHIL/IAS/Global Studies? If you are particularly passionate about an issue within the realm of Global Studies, this advanced undergraduate degree provides students with the opportunity to develop an interdisciplinary research project under the mentorship of their chosen professor. If you’re interested in delving into a particular topic and establishing your own independent project, attend this information session so you can decide whether pursuing a Global Studies related BPHIL is right for you. Learn about optimal timelines, opportunities for research, how to get started, the role of the faculty mentor, and more.

Join us for a virtual discussion about current issues and US, China and Taiwan Relations with Pitt Global Professor Michael Liu along with a national webcast with CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria.
To register for this event, click here

Join the Chinese Language & Culture Club for their biweekly meetings where we will build our Chinese language skills and participate in fun cultural activities!

Coordinate an event around wellness for OC high school students with the theme of tai chi.

Please, join us for an exciting conversation with Chad Gracia, the film director of an award-winning documentary about Chernobyl--The Russian Woodpecker --on Wednesday, October 20 at 1-2pm EST! Follow the Zoom link to join us: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/98152409214

By examining two case studies on how the Chinese diaspora came to shape biomedicine in China and Taiwan from 1937 to 1970, this talk makes the case for a new historical concept of "global medicine." "Global medicine" highlights the multivalent and multidirectional flows of medical practices and ideas circulating the world that shaped Chinese East Asia in the 20th century. This presentation highlights the critical intersections of scientific expertise, political freedoms, transnational connections and diasporic affect in shaping global medicine in China and Taiwan through a critical examination of these two medical encounters between the Chinese diaspora and the local Chinese and Taiwanese.

Wayne Soon is a historian of modern China and East Asia, with a particular interest in how international ideas and practices of medicine, institutional building, and diaspora have shaped the region’s interaction with its people and the world in the twentieth century. He received his BA from Carleton College, and his PhD in history from Princeton University. His book, Global Medicine in China: A Diasporic History (Stanford, 2020), tells the global health story of Overseas Chinese who transformed medicine in twentieth-century China and Taiwan through the practices of military medicine, blood banking, mobile medicine, and mass medical training. His published and forthcoming journal articles and book reviews are in Twentieth Century China, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, American Journal for Chinese Studies, Asian Studies Review, Asian Medicine, Social History of Medicine, and East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal. To register, please click here.

Join the German Department for Laber Rhabarber, a weekly German conversation hour that is open to all!

A weekly conversation table for people interested in German culture and language, all proficiency levels are welcome!

International Development Work in Various Communities
October 20th, 6pm-7pm, Virtual Format

Sakun Gajurel, Volunteer Initiatives and Youth Engagement Coordinator, UNICEFF
Rotary Peace Fellow, World Food Programme, Disaster Relief, Refugee Operations

Sakun is an international development professional with experience serving in Nepal, Thailand, Italy, India, Bangladesh and the US. She has aided vulnerable communities in multi-lingual settings, including disaster situations, in the capacity of program support, communication, advocacy, and as a community outreach officer. Sakun has assisted organizational development, project management, monitoring and evaluation initiatives, and partnerships. She currently serves as Emerging Leader for UCIS at Pitt, and will discuss her career trajectory, experience serving South Asian Refugee Community, and efforts to aid local teachers and the university community.

To Register:
https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcsdemupzkrG9cL-ZORMx6WJD6yDvGE9YEh

Sponsored by: Asian Studies Center, Center for African Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies, European Studies Center, and Global Studies Center

Join the Spanish Club for Spanish conversation at all levels

Did you know that there were hippies in the USSR? There were. Faced with societal scorn and repression, Soviet hippies created a version of Western counterculture in and despite late Soviet realities that linked them youth cultures beyond the Iron Curtain. How did these Soviet long-hairs defy police harassment, survive psychiatric hospitals force feeding conformism, and social stigma? This live interview with Juliane Furst will delve into the story of Soviet hippies and how they ironically meshed with Soviet life.

Register via Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QQ86CvZqTx6u7iQ-3kNsiA

Reece Jones (Department of Geography, University of Hawai’i) is publishing his latest book, “White Borders” in October. The book focuses on the racial exclusion inherent in American immigration laws, tracing between the Chinese exclusion laws of the 1880s to the Trump border wall policies.

Global Issues Through Literature (GILS)

Fall and Spring 2021-22: Imagining Other Worlds: Globalizing Science Fiction and Fantasy

This reading group for K-12 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. Sessions this year will take place virtually on Thursday evenings from 5-8 PM (EST). Books and three Act 48 credit hours are provided.

October 21st - Haroun & the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. Discussion led by Dr. K. Frances Lieder, Visiting Professor, Global Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh

Learn more and register here - https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/professional-development-educators

Contact Maja Konitzer with questions at majab@pitt.edu

Join the Persian Language Table every other Thursday at the Global Hub!

Tina Batra Hershey, JD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and an Affiliated Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she teaches courses on health care fraud, abuse, and compliance; health law and ethics; and health policy and management in public health. She is also the Co-Director of the Multidisciplinary Master of Public Health program. At Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, she is an adjunct instructor of Health Law. Her current and recent projects include enhancing tribal legal preparedness for public health emergencies through the Tribal Legal Preparedness Project; co-authoring public health emergency law manuals and bench books for the District of Columbia and Louisiana; and using legal epidemiology to examine the impact of laws and policies related to infectious disease outbreaks and natural disasters.

Contact Elaine Linn at eel58@pitt.edu for more information.

MODERATOR:
Dan Healey, University of Oxford

PRESENTERS:
Anita Kurimay, Bryn Mawr College
Renee Perelmutter, University of Kansas

REGISTER IN ADVANCE AND FIND OUT MORE: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/crees/intersectionality-in-focus.

Addverse+Poesia is a transnational and multilingual student organization dedicated to celebrating Black/Indigenous and LGBTQIA+ writers, poets, etc. Join us for your weekly meetings on Fridays from 4:30-6PM!

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 rapid growth of cities and their impact on fair housing, gentrification, and poverty; the role of human rights cities as models; the role of migration on cities; the role of governance addressing inequality; the need to have access to health care; among others.

The course will occur on Friday, October 22nd, Saturday, October 23rd, and Sunday, October 24th. Engagement in the course should be synchronous; accommodations for those in significant time zone differences will be provided to allow enrollment and completion of all elements of the weekend. A pre-course video review of the major course assignment will need to be completed prior to the course starting.

Learn more and register here! https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/transforming-cities-minicourse