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.
2025 European Union Film Festival
Duty of Care, The Climate Trials (Netherlands), 2022, 57 MIN
Directed by Nic Balthazar
Dutch and English language with English subtitles
Duty of Care tells the exclusive inside story of Roger Cox, the first and only lawyer to have successfully sued a government and an oil giant in landmark court cases that established catastrophic climate change can be made illegal. Roger’s ground-breaking cases against the Dutch government and oil major Shell established that those in power owe a duty of care to citizens to avoid catastrophic climate change, stunning legal experts and sending shock-waves through parliaments and corporate boardrooms around the world.
With echoes of the lawsuits against Big Tobacco, this inspirational 55-minute documentary gives viewers a behind-the-scenes experience of the David v. Goliath battle as one Dutch property lawyer turned litigation maverick takes on powerful states and the world’s largest oil company in the courtroom drama of our lifetimes.
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
2025 European Union Film Festival
Luzzu (Malta), 2021, 94 MIN
Directed by Alex Camilleri
Maltese language with English subtitles
Hardworking new father Jesmark, played by a real-life Maltese fisherman, must choose between the traditional way of life practiced by his family for generations and an illicit black-market fishing operation in this stunning neorealist tale operating in the tradition of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rosselini, and the Dardenne brothers.
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
2025 European Union Film Festival
Afire (Germany) 2023, 102 MIN
Directed by Christian Petzold
German language with English subtitles
While vacationing by the Baltic Sea, writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) are surprised by the presence of Nadja (Paula Beer), a mysterious young woman staying as a guest at Felix’s family’s holiday home. Nadja distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel and with brutal honesty, forces him to confront his caustic temperament and self-absorption. As Nadja and Leon grow closer, an encroaching forest fire threatens the group and tensions escalate when a handsome lifeguard and Leon's tight-lipped book editor also arrive.
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
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)
Nicole Breland Aandahl (JD '01) will discuss her novel Motherland, a thriller set in 1968 Washington, D.C., that explores the intersection between the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and gender inequity. The book builds on Nicole's background in Soviet Union studies, her work in national security, her lived experiences, and her parents' experience in 1968 Washington, D.C.
Nicole will discuss her research process, inspiration, and how her time at Pitt and study in Ukraine (during her JD education) impacted her work. She will also answer questions about her career track to becoming the first General Counsel at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., where she previously served as CSIS's senior Vice President for people and culture, which included the Human Resources department and Diversity and Leadership in International Affairs (DLIA) project.
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!
2025 European Union Film Festival
Duty of Care, The Climate Trials (Netherlands), 2022, 57 MIN
Directed by Nic Balthazar
Dutch and English language with English subtitles
Duty of Care tells the exclusive inside story of Roger Cox, the first and only lawyer to have successfully sued a government and an oil giant in landmark court cases that established catastrophic climate change can be made illegal. Roger’s ground-breaking cases against the Dutch government and oil major Shell established that those in power owe a duty of care to citizens to avoid catastrophic climate change, stunning legal experts and sending shock-waves through parliaments and corporate boardrooms around the world.
With echoes of the lawsuits against Big Tobacco, this inspirational 55-minute documentary gives viewers a behind-the-scenes experience of the David v. Goliath battle as one Dutch property lawyer turned litigation maverick takes on powerful states and the world’s largest oil company in the courtroom drama of our lifetimes.
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
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!
2025 European Film Festival
The Animal Kingdom (France), 2023, 128 MIN
Directed by Thomas Cailley
French language with English subtitles
In The Animal Kingdom, a visionary new thriller that drops viewers into an extraordinary world where mutations in human genetics cause people to transform into hybrid creatures, François (Roman Duris) does everything he can to save his wife, who is affected by this mysterious condition. As some of the creatures disappear into a nearby forest, François embarks with Emile (Paul Kircher), their 16-year-old son, on a quest to find her with help from a local police officer (Adèle Exarchopoulos). From acclaimed director Thomas Cailley, the film world premiered as the opening night selection of Cannes Un Certain Regard.
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
Celebrate the Year of the Snake! Fun Activities & Delicious Snacks. Come join us and bring in the Lunar New Yeat with joy and excitement!
2025 European Union Film Festival
Luzzu (Malta), 2021, 94 MIN
Directed by Alex Camilleri
Maltese language with English subtitles
Hardworking new father Jesmark, played by a real-life Maltese fisherman, must choose between the traditional way of life practiced by his family for generations and an illicit black-market fishing operation in this stunning neorealist tale operating in the tradition of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rosselini, and the Dardenne brothers.
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
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 Alcarras (Spain)
In the small village of Alcarràs in Catalonia, the peach farmers of the Solé family spend every summer together picking fruit from their orchard. But when new plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees, the members of this tight-knit group suddenly face eviction – and the loss of far more than their home.
Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, the sophomore film from Carla Simón (Summer 1993) is a sun-dappled, deeply moving ensemble portrait of the countryside and a community’s unbreakable bonds.
2025 European Union Film Festival
Double Feature:
6:00 PM - Feathers or Glamour (Estonia), 2023, 28 MIN
Directed by Eva Kübar
Estonian language with English subtitles
Estonian urban chicken “farming.” Chickens as pets in bedazzled diapers. It is a short film.
6:30 PM - Alcarrás (Spain), 2023, 120 MIN
Directed by Carla Simón
Catalan with English Subtitles
In the small village of Alcarràs in Catalonia, the peach farmers of the Solé family spend every summer together picking fruit from their orchard. But when new plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees, the members of this tight-knit group suddenly face eviction – and the loss of far more than their home.
Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, the sophomore film from Carla Simón (Summer 1993) is a sun-dappled, deeply moving ensemble portrait of the countryside and a community’s unbreakable bonds.
2025 European Union Film Festival
Double Feature:
6:00 PM -Feathers or Glamour (Estonia)
6:30 PM - Alcarrás
Alcarrás (Spain), 2023, 120 MIN
Directed by Carla Simón
Catalan with English Subtitles
In the small village of Alcarràs in Catalonia, the peach farmers of the Solé family spend every summer together picking fruit from their orchard. But when new plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees, the members of this tight-knit group suddenly face eviction – and the loss of far more than their home.
Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, the sophomore film from Carla Simón (Summer 1993) is a sun-dappled, deeply moving ensemble portrait of the countryside and a community’s unbreakable bonds.
Reflecting on the global success of Squid Game (Hwang Dong-hyuk, 2021) and its reinvention of the death game genre, this talk explores both the opportunities and challenges presented by new media systems, particularly global video streaming platforms, for local creators.
Netflix, renowned for decentralized approaches and departure from corporate-driven and center-to-local strategies in traditional media, allows for greater financial and creative freedom for local creators. However, concerns have arisen over Netflix’s dominance in local media landscapes and the overreliance of local creators on the platform giant, which would eventually lead to the demise of local media.
In exploring the rise of Netflix as the leading global platform, with a particular focus on its success in Korea, this talk thus aims first to articulate the double-edged nature of platform economy. In the latter part of the talk, attention shifts towards Squid Game itself, focusing on how it creatively adapted to the platform culture and how it questions contemporary capitalism through an innovative investment in the trope of survival game, where participants voluntarily enter the death game, rendering values such as free will empty promises.
Highlighting the show’s own dilemma between its anti-capitalist ethos and its success on Netflix, this talk also addresses the broader irony of resistance within the logic of platform economy that local production faces as the platform ecosystem continues to expand.
Join the Spanish Club for a regular meeting in the Global Hub. The event with a guest speaker has been postponed until February 5 at the same time.
2025 European Union Film Festival
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, in the middle of the city, 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.
Pitt Students/Faculty and Staff: Free Admission with a valid Pitt ID
General Admission: $9.00 (Students/Seniors) and $11.00 (Regular)
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)
Moderated by Darya Tsymbalyuk, with speakers Zhanar Sekerbayeva, Oksana Kazına, and Aydin Khalilov.
11:00 am - 12:30 pm (EST) | 10:00 am - 11:30 am (CST) | 8:00 -9:30 am (PST)
This six-part virtual event series will examine body matters within Eurasia through a variety of disciplines and themes. The body-as-method has emerged recently to provide novel insights on society, culture, and identity by foregrounding alternatives to Western traditions that marginalized the corporeal dimensions of social and personal existence.
Why is the body good “to think with” on both intellectual and professional matters?
How do classed, diversely abled, gendered, and raced bodies interact in the daily lives we study or inhabit through our avocations?
What is the continuously evolving relationship between the body and the body politic, whether the nation, empire, the EU, or NATO?
Is research and teaching disembodying and can recentering “embodied and uncomfortable knowledge” therefore move liberation in East European and Eurasian Studies forward?
To address these questions, "Bodies in Focus" will have six virtual, recorded panels featuring speakers from various disciplines and institutions. Panelists and the audience will explore how bodies matter for the study and teaching of East European and Eurasian social and material environments, our understanding of power and equity, and for the cultivation of human capacities in our field.
This panel is part of the series Bodies in Focus; Power, Subjectivity, and Practice in East European and Eurasian Studies. For the full schedule, see https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/creees/content/bodies-focus
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.
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: TBA
