Week of November 14, 2021 in UCIS

Thursday, April 8 until Friday, April 8

8:00 am Conference
Georgia Consortium: Exploring the Complexities of Vietnam
Location:
Online via Zoom
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center
See Details

Register here.

Sunday, October 24 until Tuesday, November 30

12:00 pm Cultural Event
Celtic Culture Celebration
Sponsored by:
Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs
See Details

Please join us for a virtual event created by the Welsh, Scottish and Irish Rooms as they showcase unique aspects of their culture. Enjoy a brief Powerpoint presentation of each room and pre-recorded videos exclusively made for this event on each culture's history, art, music, poetry, dance and more?

Sunday, November 14 until Sunday, November 21

(All day) Festival
Pittsburgh POLISHFEST
Location:
Online
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies and Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs along with Polish Nationality Room, Lithuanian Room Committee, Carpatho-Rusyn Society of Pittsburgh and Polish Falcons of America
See Details

Free, Virtual Cultural Celebration: Join us in a week-long celebration and share the virtual Pittsburgh POLISHFEST '21 with your family, friends and neighbors, across the street, across the country or across the world. Celebrate a variety of Polish, Lithuanian and Carpatho-Rusyn traditions, including folk music, folk dance, culinary demonstrations with recipes, historical, religious, and folk-art offerings. These presentations were created to remember something old, discover something new, keeping alive our traditions alive in an ever-changing world.

Sunday, November 14

3:00 pm Student Club Activity
Korean Conversation Hour
Location:
Global Hub - 1st Floor Posvar
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
See Details

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

Monday, November 15

11:00 am Information Session
Information Session: Healthcare in British Context
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Global Experiences Office
See Details

Interested in global health, nursing, midwifery, and medical practice? Learn how the history in these areas has influenced the development of nursing functions and examine how ethics, sociology, religion, law, economics, and philosophy have affected clinical practice and the impact these have had on the role of nurses and other medical practitioners.

This short-term, accelerated summer program on the ComparativeHealthcare Systems and Global Perspectives on Nursing History is a unique opportunity to compare the healthcare systems of the US and the UK and explore questions of universal healthcare, including issues of inequality in accessing it.
Learn more by registering for our information session at https://bit.ly/2YCCUYx or visit globalexperiences.pitt.edu/londonhealth

4:30 pm Lecture
Imperial Gateway: Colonial Taiwan and Japanese Expansion in South China and Southeast Asia, 1895–1945
Location:
211 David Lawrence Hall or via Zoom
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center
See Details

This talk examines how Japanese colonizers and Taiwanese subjects transformed colonial Taiwan—the sub-tropical island Japan acquired from China in 1895—into a staging ground for imperial expansion across the East and South China seas. Taking advantage of Taiwan's proximity and cultural affinities with South China and Southeast Asia, Japanese colonial leaders innovated new strategies to compete with the Chinese and Western powers for regional hegemony. They mobilized Taiwanese overseas as economic and cultural brokers in the pre-war period (1895–1937) and as military personnel during the Asia-Pacific wars (1937–45). Studying the intricate ties between colonial governance and international relations helps us transcend the conventional emphasis on two-way relations between Japan's home islands and each of its colonies. A regional approach to Taiwan allows us to recover transnational networks often neglected due to divisions in area studies. Japanese imperialism was a contested process among not only state agencies but also mobile colonial subjects whose interests did not easily map on to national, local, or ethnic categories. The overseas Taiwanese in particular challenge prevailing assumptions of imperial hierarchies. Gradations of power and categories of identity—colonizer and colonized—were much more fluid outside Taiwan's territorial borders.

Seiji Shirane is an Assistant Professor of Japanese History at the City College of New York (CUNY). His teaching and research interests include the Japanese Empire, Sino-Japanese relations, and war and migration in East Asia. His first book, Imperial Gateway: Colonial Taiwan and Japanese Expansion in South China and Southeast Asia, 1895–1945, will be published by Cornell University Press in 2022. Dr. Shirane received his B.A. from Yale University and Ph.D. from Princeton University. A native of NYC and fluent in Japanese and Chinese, he has studied and worked in Japan, China, and Taiwan for several years. His research has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright, the Social Science Research Council, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

To register, click here.

5:00 pm Student Club Activity
Brazil Nuts Bate-Papo
Location:
Global Hub - 1st Floor Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Center for Latin American Studies and Global Hub along with Department of Hispanic Languages & Literatures
See Details

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

6:00 pm Student Club Activity
Pitt French Club Meeting
Location:
Global Hub - 1st Floor Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Department of French & Italian
See Details

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

Tuesday, November 16

10:00 am Workshop
Gender Equality in Public Administration
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Global Studies Center along with Office of the Chancellor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), Department of Sociology and Ford Institute for Human Security
See Details

Gender Equality in Public Administration: A Global Workshop will convene academics, practitioners, and experts to further global monitoring of women’s participation and leadership in public service. To that end, the workshop will profile results from a new UNDP-Pitt global report on gender equality in public administration (GEPA) (https://www.undp.org/publications/global-report-gender-equality-public-a...).

The report compiles data and cutting-edge research on progress towards gender parity in the civil service in 170 countries. The workshop will focus on three research areas: 1) glass ceilings that undercut women’s representation in top leadership and senior management positions in the civil service; 2) glass walls that limit gender equality across policy areas, with particular attention to environmental ministries; and 3) gender inequalities in public institutions tasked with COVID-19 response. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of the path forward towards building more inclusive, participatory and representative institutions.

12:00 pm Lecture Series / Brown Bag
Conversations on Europe: An Uneven Pandemic Recovery? Disparities in Health, Economic, and Education Outcomes Across Europe
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies and European Studies Center along with Center for Bioethics and Health Law, Jean Monnet in the USA Network, Jean Monnet Center of Excellence at Florida International University, Center for European Studies at University of Florida, European Union Center at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Center for Transatlantic Studies at Georgia Tech
See Details

The effects of COVID-19 have been felt unevenly across Europe, a trend which continues into the recovery from the pandemic. In this panel, experts will discuss how these inequalities have been felt on an individual level and at the national level in terms of health and educational outcomes and economic impacts.
Panelists:
Holly Jarman, University of Michigan
Julia Lynch, University of Pennsylvania
Martin Myant, European Trade Union Institute
Sylke Schnepf, JRC-European Commission
Moderated by Jae-Jae Spoon, University of Pittsburgh

Audience Participation is encouraged.

#CoE

12:00 pm Information Session
Information Session: Pitt in Bolivia
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Global Experiences Office
See Details

During the Inca Empire, Cochabamba was used strictly as farmland to feed the entire Inca Empire. Remains of this empire provide an excellent opportunity for students to study the remnants of this ancient civilization. Pitt in Bolivia: Culture, Society, & Service Learning offers students the opportunity to learn about contemporary issues facing a diverse and largely indigenous population. During this 6-week program, students will take courses on culture and infectious diseases specific to the Andean country. Understand and learn about communicable diseases and risk mitigation in this vulnerable population.

Learn more by registering for our information session at https://bit.ly/3Fld2RD or visit globalexperiences.pitt.edu/bolivia

12:00 pm Panel Discussion
PAA Presents: Arguing and the Art of Persuasion
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Pitt Alumni Association
See Details

In professional and personal situations alike, the ability to present an effective and respectful argument is an asset. Whether negotiating for a pay increase or influencing the media on behalf of an organization, the art and skill of persuasion is useful no matter the career or situation. A panel representing nonprofit, government affairs, and media relations will offer participants advice and tactics on building a persuasive and compelling argument for your organization and for yourself in the workplace.

8:00 pm Student Club Activity
Chinese Language & Culture Club
Location:
Global Hub - Conversation Table
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
See Details

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

Wednesday, November 17

12:00 pm Panel Discussion
Romanian Jewish History and Collective Memory in Romanian Film
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies along with American Romanian Cultural Society, Northwest Film Forum, ARCHER Coalition, ARCS Detroit, Arizona ARCC and Romanian Cultural Institute
See Details

Join us for a talk on Jewish Romanian history and collective memory formation in Romanian film with director Oana Giurgiu and historians Cristina A. Bejan and Adrian Cioflâncă. The session will be moderated by Libby Langsner.

Register HERE for the event:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUuf-CoqzsjGtZsT4HXNyHtkZU26th...

Click Here to watch the films that will inform our discussion ( Radu Jude's Dead Nation and The Exist of the Trains, Oana Giurgiu's Occasional Spies) November 12-21st:
https://watch.eventive.org/rffs2021

Event organized in partnership with ARCHER - Romanian American Coalition for Human and Equal Rights.
About the Event:
The issues of the Holocaust, the Romanian-Jewish experience and identity, still remain relevant, and often controversial, topics in contemporary Romanian culture. Film has become a vehicle for these taboo subjects to be explored and for the multi-faceted history of the Romanian Jewish experience, especially during World War Two, to come to light.
Collective memory is defined as how groups remember their past, but the question of who is considered the “group,” and which memories are passed down and how, is more malleable than one might think.
Directors Radu Jude and Oana Girgiu both seek to challenge and expand what we know about Romanian history, and, in essence, who gets to be Romanian.

About Our Guests:
Oana Giurgiu:
Oana Giurgiu is a law and journalism graduate, having directed television documentaries before working in film on Cristi Puiu’s 2005 Cannes Un certain regard winner, “The Death of Mr Lăzărescu” and then on Kornél Mundruczó’s 2008 Cannes FIPRESCI winner, “Delta”.
She produced three of Tudor Giurgiu’s films: “Love Sick” (Berlinale 2006, Panorama); the 2012 Romanian box office hit “Of Snails and Men” (Warsaw IFF); and “Why Me?” (Berlinale 2015, Panorama). She also produced Peter Strickland’s “Katalin Varga” (Berlinale 2009, Silver Bear, European Discovery of the year at European Film Academy Awards) and Cristi Puiu’s “Sieranevada” (Cannes 2016). Oana co-produced Hungarian titles “Eden”, dir. Agnes Kocsis (Rotterdam IFF 2020) and “Spiral” (in post-production), dir. Cecilia Felmeri and the Slovak “The Servants”, dir. Ivan Ostrochovsky (Berlinale 2020, Encounters), and the Turkish “Before two Dawns” (in post-production), dir. Selman Nacar (working progress awards at Meetings on the bridge, Istanbul IFF 2020, and Antalia 2019), produced the greatest Romanian box office hit in recent years, “Moromete Family: On the Edge of Time”, which received ten Gopo Awards in 2019.
After working on several television documentary productions, she made her directorial debut with a feature-length historical documentary, “Aliyah DaDa”, screened in Astra Sibiu, Jerusalem Jewish IFF, alongside other Jewish festivals and screenings worldwide, and recognized as Best Romanian Documentary at the Gopo Awards 2015, now she just launched her new documentary “Occasional Spies”, Special mention of the Jury at Astra Film Festival 2021.
Adrian Cioflâncă:
Adrian Cioflâncă is co-director with Radu Jude of the documentary The Exit of the Trains (2020). He is a historian, director of the „Wilhelm Filderman” Center for the Study of Jewish History in Romania and a member of the Collegium of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives. He is also a researcher with the "A. D. Xenopol” Institute of History (belonging to the Romanian Academy). He was a member of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania (2003-2004) and expert in The Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania (2006), and a co-author of the Final Reports of the two commissions. Since 2005, he is a member of the Romanian Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. A “Tziporah Wiesel” Fellow of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington (2009), between 2010-2012, he was a department director in The Institute for the Investigation of the Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile. Adrian Cioflâncă edited, in collaboration, eight volumes; the last one: “Discurs și violență antisemită în România modern” (Discourse and Antisemitic Violence in Modern Romania), Hasefer, București, 2020. He also authored studies in fields like the history of the Holocaust, history of communism, political violence, cultural history, the theory of history. Consultant for several movies and theatrical plays.
Cristina Bejan:
Cristina A. Bejan is an award-winning Romanian-American historian, theatre artist, and poet. A Rhodes and Fulbright scholar, she currently teaches history at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Bejan received her Masters and DPhil (PhD) in Modern History from the University of Oxford and her BA in Philosophy (Honors) from Northwestern. A playwright and spoken word poet (Lady Godiva), her creative work has appeared in the US, UK, Romania, and Vanuatu. Bejan runs the arts group Bucharest Inside the Beltway. She has published two books (history and poetry), a play in the anthology "Voices on the Move" (eds. Domnica Radulescu and Roxana Cazan), and 64 articles and the African continent introduction for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's "Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos Vol. 3."
About Our Moderator:
Libby Langsner was the 2020-2021 Jewish Heritage Program Fellow at World Monuments Fund, where she worked with global Jewish communities to help steward their built heritage. She completed her masters in the History of Art focusing on countercultural art from Eastern European and Latin America at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2020. Her MA dissertation focused on the issues of gender and culpability in contemporary Eastern European Holocaust film. Before attending the Courtauld, Libby completed her undergraduate education in art history at Tufts University and worked at multiple art galleries throughout New York City.

4:00 pm Cultural Event
CANCELLED: Laber Rhabarber: German Conversation Hour
Location:
Global Hub - Living Room
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Department of German
See Details

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

5:00 pm Teacher Training
Cartonera Teacher Workshop
Location:
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Center for Latin American Studies and Global Studies Center along with University Library System (ULS)
See Details

The mission of the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) is to promote global understanding through support for teaching, learning, and research in and on Latin America, the Caribbean, and the diverse diasporic communities of Latin American and Caribbean origin.
The cartonera Publishing trend began in Buenos Aires in 2003, organized by writers and artists producing low-cost, hand-made books, using recycled cardboard (thus the name cartonera). Interestingly, literacy rates improve with access to cartonera books. The books are produced in a collective-circular way, in which authors become – designers become – publishers become – authors.
The Cartonera phenomenon has expanded across the Americas, Europe and Africa. CLAS will facilitate cartonera publishing through this workshop focused on Pittsburgh schools and the larger community. We aim to promote ways in which language, social studies, and science teachers can work together using their creativity to recycle basic materials while promoting literacy.

6:00 pm Student Club Activity
German Club Stammtisch
Location:
Global Hub - Conversation Table
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Department of German
See Details

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

7:00 pm Student Club Activity
Latin American Music Night
Location:
Global Hub - 1st Floor Posvar
Sponsored by:
Center for Latin American Studies and Global Hub along with Spanish Club and Brazil Nuts
See Details

Join the Spanish Club and Brazil Nuts for a music-themed Kahoot and conversation in Spanish and Portuguese

Thursday, November 18

4:00 pm Cultural Event
Japanese-English Language Social Hour
Location:
Posvar Global Hub
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center along with English Language Institute
See Details

A Japanese-English language social hour to bring together visiting students from Yasuda University and local Pitt students. An evening of language and cultural exchange.

4:30 pm Lecture
Cycling and the City: Human Rights and Human Infrastructure
Sponsored by:
Global Studies Center along with REES
See Details

Watching documentary “Together We Cycle” or “Why We Cycle” (VIMEO, 56 minutes) about the history of cycling in the Netherlands and “Mama Agatha” (16 minutes; YouTube) about a Ghanian immigrant who teaches migrant women to cycle in south Amsterdam.

5:00 pm Reading Group
Global Issues Through Literature: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies and Global Studies Center
See Details

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.
Register for the reading groups here - https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/gils

Discussion led by Professor Sabrina Robinson, Instructor in Slavic Languages & Literatures, University of Pittsburgh

Co-sponsored by the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

Contact Maja Konitzer with questions at majab@pitt.edu

8:00 pm Student Club Activity
Persian Language Table
Location:
Global Hub - 1st Floor Posvar
Sponsored by:
Global Hub along with Less-Commonly-Taught-Languages Center
See Details

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

Friday, November 19

9:00 am Lecture Series / Brown Bag
Displacement, Borders, and Belonging: Anthony Kruszewski’s life in Wartime Poland and Post-War America
Location:
Polish Nationality Room
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies and European Studies Center along with Department of History and DAAD German Academic Exchange Service
See Details

Anthony Kruszewski is professor emeritus at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
Beata Halicka is professor at Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań/Poland.

During this conversation, we will discuss Beata Halicka’s biography of Anthony Kruszewski. Professor Kruszewski was first a Polish scout fighting in World War II against the Nazi occupiers, then a Prisoner of War and Displaced Person in Western Europe. He was stranded as a penniless immigrant in post-war America and eventually became a pioneer in the field of Borderland Studies. His life story is a microcosm of twentieth-century history, covering various theatres and incorporating key events and individuals.

The discussion will be moderated by Jan Musekamp (DAAD Visiting Associate Professor, Dept of History).

10:00 am Award Ceremony
2021 Emerging Leader Award Celebration: Tareq Alaows, Syrian-German Activist
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center, Center for African Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, Director's Office, European Studies Center, Global Studies Center, Global Hub, Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs, Office of International Services, Global Experiences Office, UCIS Engagement, National Consortium on Teaching About Asia, Indo-Pacific Council, International Business Center, International Week, Confucius Institute and University of Pittsburgh Peace Corps Recruiter along with Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA)
See Details

Please join us as we honor Tareq Alaows with the Johnson Institute’s Emerging Leader Award in recognition of his dedicated work to represent and advocate for underrepresented minorities and refugees in Germany.

Tareq Alaows is a legal professional and political leader. Born and raised in Syria, Alaows came to Germany in 2015 as a refugee and has since become a German citizen. Alaows dedicates his career to advocacy and representation for refugee and minority populations in German politics, becoming the first Syrian refugee to run for German Parliament in 2021. Before his departure from Syria in 2015, Alaows worked as a law student, activist, and humanitarian worker for the Red Crescent. In Germany, Alaows founded a refugee political group called Refugee Strike Bochum and an advocacy organization called Seebrucke, which seeks to establish safe havens for refugees and speak against the criminalization of refugee rescue. Alaows also performs legal counseling for refugees in Germany.

Each year, the Johnson Institute presents an Emerging Leader award to an individual still in the early part of their career, who is committed to the highest standards of professional leadership, compassion, ethics, and stewardship of our world and the people who share it. Past honorees have included President and CEO of Baltimore Corps Fagan Harris, Civil Rights Corps Founder and Executive Director Alec Karakatsanis, and Eco-Soap Bank Founder and Executive Director Samir Lakhani.

We will honor Mr. Alaows in a virtual award ceremony, followed by a brief talk by Alaows and Q&A with the audience. This event is free and open to the public. We will be joined by the University Center for International Studies as a cosponsor for this event.

We look forward to you joining us for the session! Registration required.

4:30 pm Student Club Activity
Addverse+Poesia Meeting
Sponsored by:
Global Hub
See Details

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!

6:00 pm Reading Group
CERIS Fall Book Discussion for Educators: Paths of Accommodation by David Robison
Location:
Conover Room (Basement Floor of the) Mellon Administrative Building, Chatham University Campus, Woodland Road, Pittsburgh PA 15232-2899
Sponsored by:
Center for African Studies and European Studies Center along with Consortium for Educational Resources on Islamic Studies (CERIS) and Chatham University
See Details

Facilitated by Dr. Jean-Jacque Ngor Sène, Associate Professor of History and Cultural Studies, Chatham University

“La République Française,” has been, for the last hundred years or so, a Muslim Global Power. The French, more particularly in Modern Times, have arguably stood in World History as the very top incubator-nation of theories, from that of the “Noble Savage” falsely attributed to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, to that of (Colonial Cultural) “Assimilation” formalized by, say, Arthur Girault, onto that of “Deconstruction” in post WWII times with Brother Jacques Derrida. One such new theory out of the Hexagon of Fading Glory is the controversial nébuleuse known as l’Islamo-Gauchisme (Islamo-Leftism???) fathered by Pierre-André Taguieff in 2002 from what we think we know. David Robinson’s Paths of Accommodation, Muslim Societies and French Colonial Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880 -1921 (Ohio University Press) straddles the tropes of Negotiation, Cooperation, Sabotage, Resistance, Jihad, and more importantly, for our chosen focus, Knowledge and Power Crystallized into (Symbolic) Sociopolitical Capital. Dr. Sène, will lead a discussion focused on the diversity of Arabic sources, archival sources from the colonial registries, oral ethnographic documents, and powerful folkloric testimonies from the early 1900s onwards. The book is a unique springboard for a re-evaluation of (Muslim) Civil Societies’ agency against neo-imperial forces of mass exploitation/oppression in our own times.

This discussion is cosponsored by the African Studies Center and the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham University.
Act 48 Credits available for PA teachers.

For more information:https://www.cerisnet.pitt.edu/event/ceris-fall-book-discussion-for-educa...