Past Events

On October 16-17, scholars and advocates from the Scholars at Risk Network will gather to promote academic freedom locally, in the U.S., and around the world. The 2024 SAR United States General Assembly will provide a forum for us to discuss how we can best protect scholars and defend everyone’s freedom to think, question, and share ideas.
Please register today, and see the draft program below. We hope to see you there! If you have any questions, please write to Brian Evans at be2219@nyu.edu.
Draft agenda: (Please note that this schedule is subject to change and additional sessions may be added.)
Tuesday, October 15 @ 4:30-6:00 pm – Informal ticketed reception at City of Asylum (optional).
Wednesday, October 16:
8:30 am-3:00 pm – Conference check-in
8:30-9:30 am – Coffee and tea
9:15-10:45 am – Opening plenary: Academic freedom in the global context (Eve Darian-Smith & Abdullahi An-Na’im)
11:00 am-12:15 pm – Breakout sessions:
Session 1 – Introduction to hosting scholars: Administrative models for building out a SAR program
Session 2 – Student engagement: Advocacy seminars and legal clinics
Session 3 – Scholar connections
12:15-1:30 pm – Lunch provided and guided tours of the exhibition “What We Brought With Us”
1:30-2:45 pm – Breakout sessions:
Session 1 – SAR’s “Free to Think” report: Advocating for academic freedom
Session 2 – Sharing the Platform: Making the most of scholar placements
3:00-4:15 pm – Town hall meeting on promoting academic freedom in the USA and the role of the SAR USA section
5:00-7:00 pm – Evening reception @ University of Pittsburgh, featuring tours of the Nationality Rooms at the Cathedral of Learning
7:30-9:30 pm – Dessert and a movie
Thursday, October 17:
8:30-9:30 am – Scholar conversations on navigating threats to academic freedom (continental breakfast provided)
9:30-10:45 am
Session 1 – Post-placement planning for scholars
11:00 am-12:00 pm – Closing plenary
Creating community with at-risk artists and scholars (City of Asylum)
Scholars at Risk USA into the Future

Learn the key strategies to crafting a standout application from current professionals and faculty who've successfully navigated the process. With personal insights and expert advice, this session will give you the competitive edge you need to secure your spot in a leading professional program.

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!

Chifas, or Peruvian Chinese food and restaurants, are ubiquitous throughout South America, a region with the largest population of ethnic Chinese in the American hemisphere. They first
emerged in the second half of the 1800s to service Chinese workers who settled in Lima. As chifas gained widespread popularity, they proliferated throughout neighborhoods and cities. Over time, the food served in chifas morphed and shifted according to local tastes, spices, and food preferences. Cultural proximity and intimacy among Chinese, Black, indigenous, and mestizo Peruvians helped generate new dishes. Today, chifas are considered an important part of Peru’s national cuisine. This talk examines the development and transformation of Chifas in order to illustrate one distinctive culinary formation—chifas in Peru—within the broader global circuit of Chinese foodways.
Lok Siu is Professor of Ethnic Studies and Associate Vice Chancellor of Research at UC Berkeley. A cultural anthropologist with expertise in diaspora, transnational migration, belonging and citizenship, food, ethnography, and hemispheric Asian American studies, she is an award-winning author of several books, including, most recently, Chinese Diaspora: Its Development in Global Perspective (2021), and the forthcoming Worlding Latin Asian: Cultural Intimacies in Food, Art, and Politics (Duke U. Press).

Join TRIO SSS, as well as representatives from the Global Hub and the Global Experiences Office, for a night of global trivia, prizes, and learning about international opportunities available at Pitt! Hear from undergraduate students who have and are currently taking part in a range of global experiences, from scholarships to area studies certificate programs to co-majoring in international area studies and Russian, and have the chance to mingle with students and staff to support you in your own international journeys.

Pitt's Children’s Lit Program will host a book talk about the Thunderbird Trilogy, a Palestinian middle grade fantasy series published in translation by University of Texas Press. (See below for more info.) The third of the series will be released on September 10. In celebration of the release, we’ll hear a presentation by author Sonia Nimr and translator M. Lynx Qualey. Pitt PhD student Hebah Uddin offer a response and will lead the Q&A.
According to the US publisher, the University of Texas press: "The Thunderbird trilogy is a fast-paced time-traveling fantasy adventure centered on Noor, a young orphaned Palestinian girl who starts in the present and must go back in time to get four magical bird feathers and save the world." All three books are on sale with the code UTXSUMMER and can be found here: https://utpress.utexas.edu/search-grid/?keyword=thunderbird+series.
Sonia Nimr is an award-winning Palestinian writer, storyteller, translator, and oral historian who has published more than two dozen books for children and young adults. She is an assistant professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University.
Marcia Lynx Qualey is a writer, publisher, editor, translator, and speaker. She has published essays and short fiction in a number of magazines, including Ploughshares, AGNI, and The Ex-Puritan. She founded ArabLit, which won a “Literary Translation Initiative” award at the 2017 London Book Fair and an Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature in 2024. She reviews for various magazines and newspapers and has translated a handful of novels, including the Palestine Book Award-winning Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands, by Sonia Nimr, and Haya Saleh’s Wild Poppies, which was shortlisted for the 2024 GLLI Award. She was also shortlisted for the Banipal translation prize in 2023 for the first two novels in Sonia’s Thunderbird trilogy and is very excited for you to read Maria Daadouche's forthcoming sci fi novel Golden Eyes. She is also a co-founder of the “WorldKidLit” initiative and co-hosts the BULAQ podcast, which explores literature of the Maghreb and Mashreq.