The Celebrate Africa Festival brings students, faculty, and staff together with the vibrant African diaspora community in Pittsburgh. There is food, song & dance, artisans, children's activities, and more! It is a wonderful opportunity to engage with the diversity of Africa and the Pittsburgh community, as well as network with local African organizations and businesses.
Find the full schedule of events and vendor list here: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/africa/celebrate-africa-2024
Week of September 7, 2025 in UCIS
Friday, September 20 until Saturday, September 20
Monday, September 8
Join German Club at Pitt weekly meetings to improve language skills and cultural knowledge of German speaking regions!
German Club will meet in the Global Hub every Monday during Fall 2025 semester, starting September 8 and ending December 1, EXCEPT on November 24.
Tuesday, September 9
European Studies Center Brown Bag Lunch and Learn Series
This “lunch and learn” session will present the preliminary results of Dr. von Dirke research for her upcoming book titled "East Asian Diaspora in Germany Today."
Dr. von Dirke will discuss how images of minoritized populations shape perception in today’s highly differentiated media societies. Her research aims to map the circulation of Asian clichés and stereotypes in public discourse. These stereotypes, clichés and tropes are, of course, rooted in the German colonialist project. She uses the 1970s ABC television series, Kung Fu, to analyze how these colonialist images are refracted through US-American popular media, such as television shows, in the case of West Germany since 1945.
Bio:
Sabine von Dirke is Associate Professor in the German Department at Pitt and focuses on the political and cultural developments of Germany since 1945 within a European context. Previous scholarship analyzed sub- and counter-cultural developments in (West) Germany (1960s student movement 1960s, politically motivated violence of the Red Army Faction; the politics of popular culture (Neue Deutsche Welle, German Hip Hop, Pop Literature of the 1990s). Her current research explores the politics of representation with respect to Germans of Color, mostly Asian Germans, within Germany’s public television and digital media landscape, with a focus on the 2nd generation’s self-articulation. A second project explores the ideological labor televisual entertainment formats perform in maintaining the political and economic status quo.
Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Fall 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 Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.
Wednesday, September 10
Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Fall 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 Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.
Join the Arabic Club for biweekly meetings in the Global Hub during Fall 2025 semester, and to practice Arabic language, structured by varying geographic dialects and level of speaker proficiency!
Thursday, September 11
Pitt students: Join Kya Baat Hai, a Hindi-Urdu conversational club that practices language and celebrates South Asian culture, for weekly conversation hours!
Kya Baat Hai will meet weekly, on Thursdays, during the Fall semester, EXCEPT on Thursday, November 27.