Events

The Global Appalachia Reading Group examines the complex intersections of regional identity, global influence, and environmental justice as they pertain to Appalachia and its connections to the wider world. The Fall 2026 theme is "Place."
Session 1 Book, September 17, 2025: Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters, edited by Dwight B. Billings and Ann E. Kingsolver
Session 2 Book, October 22, 2025: Affrilachia by Frank X. Walker
Session 3 Book, November 19, 2025: Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia  by Emily Hilliard
Copies of the books will be available for those planning to attend the event. Please stop by the Global Studies Center (4100 Posvar Hall) to pick up your copy. If you need the books shipped, that can be arranged.
Note: We are able to fund and distribute books to registrants as funding allows. Registration will remain open after this amount is reached. Registrants will be notified if we are unable to provide them with the reading material.

Join the Turkish Language Table in the Global Hub to learn about Turkish language, culture, and community.
There will be four meetings in the Global Hub during Fall semester, each from 8-9 pm:
- September 17
- October 1 - Board Game Night!
- October 15
- November 12

Want to learn more about global opportunities with AIFS and/or IES? Come speak with representatives from both organizations in 810 William Pitt Union about their study and internship abroad programs!

The University of Pittsburgh’s Continental Connection: Africa and the African Diaspora Research Conference and Celebration will be a dynamic gathering that brings together faculty and students from across the University—including the Department of Africana Studies, Center for African Studies, Center for Ethnic Studies, Center on Race and Social Problems, Center for Health Equity, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Social Work.
Experience the power of connection as faculty and students share their research through captivating presentations and hands-on interactive poster sessions on September 18.
This conference creates a vibrant space where scholarship transcends geographical boundaries, sparking meaningful collaborations and amplifying the vital voices and contributions of African and diaspora communities worldwide.
Planned events will continue on September 19-20 with the Celebrate Africa & African Diaspora Festival hosted by the Center for African Studies.

The Greek Nationality Room is launching the new program period with a lecture series that will feature and explore women archetypes in Greek Tragedy, from ancient to modern times:
pahellenicfoundation.org/Tragedy
The first two lectures/presentations, scheduled for September 20 and 27, both at 7 PM explore enduring female archetypes in ancient Greek tragedy (September 20) and Byzantine culture (September 27). These presentations will offer insights into how archetypal patterns of female behavior have evolved and continue to evolve and influence modern identity, thought, and action.
The explorations will:
- interpret archetypal female behavior through literary and historic women.
- highlight the timeless power of archetypes that continue to shape contemporary consciousness.
- create a clear link between past and present, fostering reflection on personal and societal levels.
On the day following each presentation (September 21 and 28, respectively), participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and engage in live discussion with the presenter.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER, GIOVANNA LIVERI:
Giovanna Liveri is a philologist and educator with extensive experience in teaching Ancient and Modern Greek language and literature, both as a native and a foreign language. Founder of the website “Language and Culture Dialogues” and the educational platform “e-Dialogos”. She organizes interactive cultural workshops and seminars for Greek and international audiences and designs speaking and cultural courses through literature and culture for Greeks in the diaspora. She specializes in innovative, experiential teaching methods, combining traditional philological knowledge with modern educational approaches. She has taught in private schools, educational centers, and IB programs, with a focus on Greek language and literature studies.
Although the presentations will be open to everyone, to participate in the live discussion and Q&A period, we kindly ask those interested to register. Details are inside the program website:
pahellenicfoundation.org/Tragedy
We look forward to these presentations as well as other events in motion for this fall season.

In Blue Sun Palace’s Chinese-speaking Queens, Cheung is a migrant laborer and Didi works at a massage parlor with other Chinese immigrants. Among them is Amy (Ke-Xi Wu), a gifted cook who dreams of opening her own restaurant. When Didi is tragically killed, Cheung and Amy form an unexpected bond as they navigate their grief and search for connection. Blue Sun Palace offers a quiet, realistic portrayal of immigrant life in New York, where English is rarely spoken and interactions with non-immigrant Americans are largely commodified. While there are daily indignities foisted upon the immigrants, Blue Sun Palace is no misery showcase. Intimacy and warmth co-exist with economic anxieties and deep grief that are articulated with uncommon intelligence and understanding of how adults endure any given day. Director Constance Tsang gives us confident direction in her debut feature, bringing a fresh exploration to how American newcomers might find comfort and solace in one another in an otherwise alienating land.

The 2025 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, a love story set in a traditional Maharashtrian village, follows Anand, a city dweller who, during a 10-day mourning period for his father, rekindles a tender bond with his childhood friend. At the beginning of Cactus Pears, protagonist Anand has to leave his urban world to mourn his beloved father in his ancestral home, where he is inundated with memories and his relations question his marital status. Anand finds himself drawn to his childhood friend Balya, as their personal and emotional struggles bring them closer during Anand’s 10-day mourning period. Cactus Pears is a refreshingly intimate film that explores queer life in rural India in a new way. Far from imagining the region as inherently hostile to queerness, the film explores the deep complexities around family obligation, loss, and desire. By casting local actors and filming in his ancestral village, Cactus Pears becomes a semi-autobiographical portrait of love and hope found. even in the most unusual of places.
Winner, Sundance Grand Jury Prize 2025

European Studies Center Brown Bag Lunch and Learn Series
In 2022, the Meloni government renewed plans to connect Sicily and the Italian mainland— plans that had lain dormant for more than a decade—and build the largest single-span suspension bridge in the world. What does this most recent chapter of the bridge’s story tell us about Sicily’s place in the Italian nation, in Europe, and in frameworks of integration
and security? And how do the politics of this moment resonate with earlier plans to bind this notoriously “seismic” island to more “stable” ground?
Bio:
Dr. Lina Insana
Associate Prof of Italian
Director of Italian Graduate Studies
Italian Program Coordinator
Lina Insana’s research and teaching focuses on modern and contemporary Italian cultural production. Most of her work on Italian writer and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi is concerned with textual mediation, translation, and adaptation; newer research—on Sicilian cultural belonging and manifestations of italianità in the American interwar period (1919-1939)—seeks to interrogate formations of transnational identity at the margins of conventionally accepted definitions of Italianness.

Please join the staff of the Andy Warhol Museum, as they provide an overview of Warhol's blotted line technique. Registration is required due to limited space.