Past Events

Global Issues Through Literature (GILS) Fall and Spring 2021-22: Imagining Other Worlds: Globalizing Science Fiction and Fantasy
April 28th, 2022 - "Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper. Co-sponsored by the European Studies Center
Facilitated by Emilee Ruhland, who graduated this spring with her Master’s in Critical and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, and she holds an MA in English from North Dakota State University. Emilee is a medievalist and has written about Beowulf, Joan of Arc, Notre Dame de Paris, and Gothic architecture in Pittsburgh. She works in higher ed communications, most recently as the Communications Coordinator for the European Studies Center.
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
Contact Maja Konitzer with questions at majab@pitt.edu

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a leading cause of death around the world, with the highest burdens in low-resource settings, and is expected to grow exponentially to cause around 10 million deaths annually in 2050. It is defined by high degrees of complexity given its international, multisectoral, ‘one health’ and ‘creeping’ features, which creates significant challenges for good governance. In addition, only 0,5% of all AMR related research comes from the social sciences, which indicates that we know relatively little about the behavioral and institutional aspects of antibiotics. It is also typically referred to as a low-salient political issue. This talk will introduce three dimensions of European governance of antibiotics; first, how experts, typically top senior bureaucrats, create an ‘administrative action space’ when politicians fail to raise the issue; second, the networking dynamics among domestic bureaucracies to create collaborative governance; and thirdly, the role and function of the EU Commission to act as a third-party enforcer in solving the large-scale collective action dilemma of AMR.
Daniel Carelli is a PhD Candidate in political science at the University of Gothenburg. His dissertation investigates how administrative traditions and bureaucratic autonomy affect inter-bureaucratic collaboration around the issue of antimicrobial resistance in Europe.

This professional development opportunity for K-12 educators will focus on the book "America's Energy Gamble: People, Economy, and Planet" by Shanti Gamper-Rabindran.
This book details how any administration intent on pursuing a pro-fossil policy, when Congress fails to act as a check, can change governance rules to permanently entrench oil and gas extraction and reliance in the United States and to cripple regulatory agencies. The Trump administration’s actions which violated traditional bipartisan values of economic prudence, environmental stewardship and respect for democratic norms, damaged Americans’ health, economy and governing institutions. Americans can take steps to reset the United States to a sustainable energy pathway and a more inclusive economy. Proposed legislation that combines incentives for the deployment of renewable energy with long-term investments into revitalizing fossil fuel communities enjoys strong support among voters in fossil fuel reliant regions. Government policies that correct economic-wide signals to capture climate risks creates a more level playing field for the growth of more sustainable livelihoods.
The workshop will be led by Tracy Wazenegger, Science and Global Issues educator, and will focus on how to use the book in the classroom. Books are available on a first come first serve basis. Act 48 credits will also be available.
Shanti Gamper-Rabindran (Ph.D. MIT) is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research examines how political, legal and financial institutions help or hinder the energy transition in the Appalachian region and globally. She currently serves on National Academy of Science study panel on the chemical economy.
Tracy Wazenegger is a science and global issues educator with 18 years of experience in the high school classroom. In addition to teaching Honors Chemistry and AP Chemistry, she has co-developed and co-taught a number of interdisciplinary units and courses focused on global issues and the environment.
Please register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfWvWAfgUbi0PwqCdkQd7SMhOt6Waiz...

This program will feature a brief talk by Leilani, opportunities to ask questions and talk about housing rights, and space to talk about action steps in Pittsburgh and the world. Coffee and food will be provided!

Children, we are told, are becoming more anxious. But what are they anxious about? Recent studies on “climate anxiety” suggest that the current climate crisis is at the top of children and young people’s concerns and is being expressed in the form of grief. This presentation considers a growing body of climate fiction for children that links personal grief to planetary grief as a way of promoting climate activism. It examines contemporary middle-grade books that include Ali Benjamin’s The Thing about Jellyfish (2015) and Sarah Baughman’s The Light in the Lake (2019), tracing the historical and literary roots of this trend in literature for the young. Beginning in the early twentieth century, an increasing number of materials for parents and educators attempted to “teach” children how to immerse themselves in nature. But, as the archival records produced by children reveal, young people often took charge of their own relationship with the environment. Through an examination of these historical records, Dr Emily Murphy argues for a participatory approach—a method that focuses on co-production between adult and child—to the narration of these experiences as a way of broadening who we identify as young climate activists and recognizing the complex emotions associated with ecological grief.
Emily Murphy is a Lecturer in Children’s Literature at Newcastle University (UK), with research interests in international children's literature, childhood studies, and global citizenship education. Her monograph, Growing Up with America: Youth, Myth, and National Identity, 1945 to Present (University of Georgia Press, 2020), was the winner of the 2021 International Research Society for Children’s Literature Book Award. The book explores the role of the figure of the adolescent in challenging national myths about U.S. identity, and looks at both canonical American novels and young adult fiction, including Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and M.T. Anderson’s Feed, to support its argument. She has published essays in The Lion and the Unicorn, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, and Jeunesse, and her work also appears in Prizing in Children’s Literature (ed. Kenneth Kidd and Joseph Thomas) and Connecting Childhood and Old Age in Popular Media (ed. Vanessa Joosen). Currently, she is working on a new book project entitled The Anarchy of Children’s Archives: Children’s Literature and Global Citizenship Education in the American Century, for which she has received an Ezra Jack Keats/Janina Domanska Research Fellowship from the De Grummond Children’s Literature Collection and an International Youth Library Research Fellowship.

An emerging issue that should be included in the compact provision talks. The impact of climate change is global and our collective security is at risk. It has become increasingly clear that climate change has consequences that reach the very heart of the security agenda: economic disruption, flooding, disease, famine, resulting in migration on an unprecedented scale in areas of already high tension; drought and crop failure, leading to intensified competition for food, water, and energy in regions where resources are already stretched to the limit.
Speakers:
Dr. Charles Fletcher
Interim Dean
School of Earth Science and Ocean and Technology
Chair Honolulu Climate Change Commission
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Dr. J. Scott Hauger
Retired Professor Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies
Senior Advisor to the USINDOPACOM Climate Change Impacts Program