Past Events

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.

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.

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.

Olga Baranova, Senior Director of the Moscow Community Centre for LGBT+ Initiatives, will speak on the challenges LGBT+ communities face in Russia and the North Caucasus while exploring how Moscow is a conduit for refugees seeking safety and asylum and also a place under increased state surveillance. Now based in New York, Ms. Baranova is a Russian human rights activist. Her work has been featured in the 2020 award-winning documentary Welcome to Chechnya! Inside the Russian Republic's Deadly War on Gays directed by the American filmmaker David France.

Street Medicine and Health Organization
November 9th, 6pm-7pm, Virtual Format
Emily Delp, M.D.
Family Medicine Resident Physician at Medstar Health/Georgetown-Washington Hospital Center, Co-Creator of Street Health DC, Inc.
Dr. Emily Delp, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, will discuss the creation of her nonprofit organization providing health resources to persons experiencing unsheltered homelessness in DC. She will also discuss her experiences of serving refugee populations, providing street medicine, and addressing health policy initiatives.
To Register:
https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcucuquqz0pHNa_VVMC5qIwqm3kUG9zF83C
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

Through experiential learning, high school students engage directly with global issues by assuming the role of world leaders and negotiating responses to timely topics.