Events

Workshop: America's Energy Gamble
- Tracy Wazenegger and Shanti Gamper-Rabindran
- 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
- Zoom
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, associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. The workshop will be led by Tracy Wazenegger, Science and Global Issues educator and is designed for educators across ages and disciplines to incorporate global themes of sustainability, climate change, and the energy crisis into their classroom.
Books are available on a first come first serve basis. Act 48 credits will also be available.
The 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.

Workshop: Global Issues Through Literature: Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
- 5:00 pm
- Zoom
Global Issues Through Literature (GILS)
Fall and Spring 2021-22: Imagining Other Worlds: Globalizing Science Fiction and Fantasy
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
Co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Center for African Studies, Africa Access, and the Title VI Outreach Council of the African Studies Association

Reception: Afternoon Tea in Honor of Ruth Crawford Mitchell
- Pitt graduate and Quo Vadis alumna Emily Wilk
- 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
- Braun Room, 12th floor, Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
The Women’s International Club of the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs at the University of Pittsburgh cordially invites you to a tea and conversation to commemorate the birthday of Ruth Crawford Mitchell. Pitt graduate and Quo Vadis alumna Emily Wilk will share her research on the fascinating life of Ruth Crawford Mitchell.
Ruth Crawford Mitchell (June 2, 1890 – February 7, 1984) joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1924 as a lecturer on the history of immigration. Years later, Ms. Mitchell became an advisor to the then-Chancellor John G. Bowman, guiding him on the building of the Cathedral of Learning and the development of the Nationality Rooms. Ms. Mitchell worked closely with the Pittsburgh ethnic communities to raise funds for the building of the Nationality Rooms, over which she had major oversight during the design, drafting, and creation between 1926 through 1956 as the first director of the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs.

Workshop: Working with Soviet Images
- 12:30 pm
- Zoom
Using the case of Soviet visual culture, this masterclass asks how scholars from various disciplines can productively engage with images. Which analytical tools are available? What is the relationship between text and image? Was Stalinist culture logocentric, was it, in other words, dominated by one category of signs? What kinds of logic become operative with visual signs, is there such a thing as an irreducible visuality - is "a picture worth a thousand words"? We will examine a variety of images, ranging from newspaper photographs to agitprop posters to easel paintings. Teaching formats include hands-on groupwork with images, general discussion, and a bit of lecturing.
Instructor: Jan Plamper is Professor of History at the University of Limerick. From 2012-19 he was Professor of History at Goldsmiths, University of London. He specializes in symbolic politics/visual history, the history of emotions and sensory history, and the history of migration. His publications include a visual history: The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power (Yale UP, 2012).
Moderator: Alissa Klots, Assistant Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh
REQUIRED READING (FREE): David Shneer, “Picturing Grief: Soviet Holocaust Photography at the Intersection of History and Memory,”American Historical Review 115, no. 1 (2010): 28-52.
Available here: https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/115/1/28/17666?login=true
Registrations limited.

Reading Group: CLAS Clube do livro
- 6:00 pm
- City of Asylum
Depois de um excelente início com a discussão de Torto Arado, daremos continuidade ao nosso Clube do Livro com a leitura de O Avesso da Pele, de Jefferson Tenório (editora Companhia das Letras). O livro está disponível no Kindle por cerca de 5 dólares. Excepcionalmente este mês, nosso encontro será na segunda quarta feira do mês, no dia 8 de junho, às 18h, no City of Asylum.

Workshop: Teaching New Approaches to Frontier History through Film
- Cathy Fratto
- 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
- online via Zoom
This K-12 Professional Development seminar is a companion program to the Alliance for Learning in World History's New Approaches to Frontier History workshop with a focus on the Pacific. Through the documentary film, Ophir, the seminar will explore the topic of colonialism and its impact on Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Once registration for this workshop is submitted, we will email you the link to view the documentary, Ophir, and will provide you with the Zoom meeting link for the workshop, as well. Please email caf166@pitt.edu with any questions. To register, click here.

Workshop: New Approaches to Frontier History
- 10:30 am to 4:00 pm
- Zoom
The Alliance for Learning in World History is thrilled to announce its call for applications for "New Approaches to Frontier History" a professional development workshop for world history teachers at all levels. The virtual event will be held on Saturday, June 11 from 10:30 am - 4:00 pm. All accepted participants will receive a $200 stipend. The event provides teacher's with the opportunity to workshop their own syllabus or assignment that engages with indigenous history. Accepted participants will be invited to attend a curriculum workshop cosponsored by Pitt's Asian Studies Center. Applications are due April 15, 2022.
The event will feature three keynote addresses from experts in the field of frontier history:
Dr. Veronica Castillo-Munoz, UC Santa Barbara, “Teaching about the Border: Border Crossings and the Making of the US-Mexico Borderlands”
The U.S.-Mexico border is over two thousand miles long and ranks among the longest borders in the world. Understanding the formation of communities that facilitate border crossings and cultural interactions between these two nations is now more important than ever. This workshop will focus on the best practices to teaching about the border as well as the broader history and experiences of border people.
Dr. James Hill, University of Pittsburgh, “Whose Frontier Is It? Decolonizing Narratives in World History”
This talk seeks to reframe frontier histories from the perspectives of Indigenous peoples. As a first step, capturing the historical views of the colonized towards colonizer is an admirable goal. However, decolonizing efforts should not stop there. A fully decolonized history should demonstrate how Indigenous peoples have adapted to and coped with colonialism, countering narratives of their disappearance and erasure. Indigenous peoples have moved beyond mere survival by refashioning themselves to endure and thrive in a postcolonial landscape.
Dr. Matt Matsuda, Rutgers University, “Water’s Edge: Histories and Frontiers in Pacific and Oceanian Worlds”
Histories of the Pacific world have, over the last decades, been shaped by examinations of frontiers and places of encounter, both insular and connected. Scholars have pursued “unending frontiers,” “oceans unbounded,” “waves across the South,” and a “sea of islands” to illuminate new ways of telling histories and underscore long silenced voices and pasts. We will begin by mapping millennia of the translocal, examine traditions of navigation and diaspora, look to commerce and conquest, seek out lives and legacies of acculturation and persistence, understand imperial power and migrations, and the promises and perils of labor, migration, and a changing oceanic environment. We’ll pay respects to a canoe, a sea creature, a saint, a warrior, and a woman who cared for children, all living in and making their presence known across the centuries.
Email ALWH@pitt.edu with any questions

Teacher Training--Area Studies: Brussels-Lux Study Tour
- various
- (All day)
- Brussels, Belgium
The annual Brussels-Lux Study Tour is a week-long opportunity for educators across the U.S. to learn more about the European Union. With funding from the EU Delegation and the U.S. Department of Education, K-12 educators and faculty teaching at community colleges and minority-serving institutions (Title III- or Title V-eligible) are able to gain first-hand knowledge and experiences to further their understanding of Europe and the European Union.

Teacher Training--Area Studies: Brussels-Lux Study Tour
- (All day)
- Brussels, Belgium
The annual Brussels-Lux Study Tour is a week-long opportunity for educators across the U.S. to learn more about the European Union. With funding from the EU Delegation and the U.S. Department of Education, K-12 educators and faculty teaching at community colleges and minority-serving institutions (Title III- or Title V-eligible) are able to gain first-hand knowledge and experiences to further their understanding of Europe and the European Union.

Teacher Training--Area Studies: Brussels-Lux Study Tour
- various
- (All day)
- Brussels, Belgium
The annual Brussels-Lux Study Tour is a week-long opportunity for educators across the U.S. to learn more about the European Union. With funding from the EU Delegation and the U.S. Department of Education, K-12 educators and faculty teaching at community colleges and minority-serving institutions (Title III- or Title V-eligible) are able to gain first-hand knowledge and experiences to further their understanding of Europe and the European Union.

Workshop: Interdisciplinary Global Educators
- 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
- Zoom
Deadline to Apply April 22
Have you wished for the opportunity to work with colleagues at your school to globalize a unit, lesson, or module? Are you looking for an opportunity to have your students examine political, economic, social, cultural, ecological questions from multiple lenses? As part of the Summer Institute for Global Educators 2022 at the University Center for International Studies, we are excited to offer you the virtual space and resources to do such work! Science and French teachers might team up to offer a lesson on global warming in the francophone world; or Art, English, and Social Studies teachers might develop a unit on responses to the global refugee crisis in art and literature. We are looking forward to hearing your ideas! Synchronous and asynchronous daily sessions will be offered with time built in for participating educators to collaborate and develop activities, lesson plans and/or modules from the Institute’s offerings.
Apply as a team of 2-4 teachers from different subject areas at the same school. This opportunity is open to elementary, middle, and high school educators and administrators. Individual educator stipends and curriculum material grants will be provided to participating teams. Additional questions can be directed to Maja Konitzer at majab@pitt.edu.
Submit proposals here!

Conference: Plantation Societies in Comparative Perspective
- (All day)
The Working Group on Comparative Slavery (Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University and The Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh) invite you to submit an abstract for the international conference Plantation Societies in Comparative Perspective at the University of Pittsburgh on October 14-15, 2022. Abstracts should be sent by June 12 and the final paper by October 1 to plantation.societies@gmail.com.

Conference: Plantation Societies in Comparative Perspective
- (All day)
The Working Group on Comparative Slavery (Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University and The Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh) invite you to submit an abstract for the international conference Plantation Societies in Comparative Perspective at the University of Pittsburgh on October 14-15, 2022. Abstracts should be sent by June 12 and the final paper by October 1 to plantation.societies@gmail.com.

Lecture: The Uses of a Radical Past: Frank Tannenbaum: Anarchist, Social Critic, and Historian of Latin America
- Barbara Weinstein
- (All day)
Barbara Weinstein is the Silver Professor of History at New York University and Past President of the American Historical Association. Her publications include The Amazon Rubber Boom, 1850-1920 (1983), For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paulo (1996), and The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil (2015). Her research has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Workshop: Race in Latin America
- Barbara Weinstein
- (All day)
Barbara Weinstein is the Silver Professor of History at New York University and Past President of the American Historical Association. Her publications include The Amazon Rubber Boom, 1850-1920 (1983), For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paulo (1996), and The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil (2015). Her research has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.