Events

Lecture Series / Brown Bag: New Directions in Research: Race, Gender, and Indigeneity in the American Arctic and Siberia
- 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
- Zoom
2:00-3:30 pm (ET) | 1:00-2:30 pm (CT) | 12:00-1:30 (MT) | 11:00 am-12:30 pm (PT)
MODERATOR:
Manduhai Buyandelger, MIT
PRESENTATIONS:
"Big Noses, Angry Babushki, Mixed Messages: Racialized Expectations of Linguistic and Cultural Performance in Asian Russia"
Kathryn Graber, Indiana University, Bloomington
"Gender Articulations from Decolonial Indigenous Perspectives in the Russian and American Arctic"
Olga Ulturgasheva, University of Manchester
This event will be recorded and streamed live on the ASEEES Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/slavic.e.european.eurasian.studies/)
REGISTER IN ADVANCE: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/creees/race-in-focus
This event is part of the series "Race in Focus: From Critical Pedagogies to Research Practice and Public Engagement in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies." This series is designed to elevate conversations about teaching on race and continued disparities in our field while also bringing scholars from underrepresented minorities and/or research on communities of color to the center stage.

Reading Group: ESCape Into a Book: Gingerbread
- 7:00 pm
Join the European Studies Center at Pitt's virtual book club, exploring recent works by European authors. We will be reading "Gingerbread" by Helen Oyeyemi.
Discussion dates at February 16 and February 20. The deadline to RSVP is Thursday, January 7, 2021. A free copy of the book is available to the first 50 registrants who request one. The event is open to ALL.
RSVP at https://forms.gle/uTRwaCSdDVpd9Lir9

Workshop: Re-Imagining the World of Art through Story and Collaboration
- Dr. Amy Alznauer
- 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
- Online via Zoom
Join author and Nationality Rooms scholarship recipient, Amy Alznauer, online as she offers ways to incorporate themes from her book about two brothers who persevere through the upheaval of China's Cultural Revolution in the 1970s by painting together.
To register for this K-5 workshop, please click here. Upon registration, you will receive the Zoom meeting link for this workshop.

Lecture Series / Brown Bag: CoE: Creating Europe Through the Built Environment
- 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
The ESC’s 2020-21 theme, Creating Europe, explores both the political, social, cultural, and geographical forces that have given shape to contemporary Europe and also individuals who create and are creative in their daily or artistic expressions of what it means to be European.
Audience participation is encouraged.
Event information will be updated to include panelists and moderator.

Reading Group: Global Issues Through Literature: “To Swim Across the World” by Frances Park & Ginger Park
- 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
- Virtual - Register Online!
This reading group for educators explores literary texts from a global perspective. Content specialists present the work and its context, and together we 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 5-7:30 PM. Books and Act 48 credit are provided.
https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/d/1Bt6L3pwY4xu-vx69cLXi6YYuIsUSjtnBP4V...

Lecture Series / Brown Bag: Talking About Whiteness: Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia
- 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
- Zoom
Join us to explore how communities are often minoritized along racial lines and the challenges scholars encounter when attempting to bring race and intersectional analysis to bear upon systemic inequality in our region.
2:00-3:30 pm (ET) | 1:00-2:30 pm (CT) | 12:00-1:30 (MT) | 11:00 am-12:30 pm (PT)
MODERATOR:
Roman Utkin, Wesleyan University
SPEAKERS:
Marius Turda, Oxford Brookes University
Lauren Woodard, Yale University
Sean Roberts, George Washington University
Monika Bobako, Adam Mickiewicz University
This event will be recorded and streamed live on the ASEEES Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/slavic.e.european.eurasian.studies/)
REGISTER IN ADVANCE: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/creees/race-in-focus
This event is part of the series "Race in Focus: From Critical Pedagogies to Research Practice and Public Engagement in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies." This series is designed to elevate conversations about teaching on race and continued disparities in our field while also bringing scholars from underrepresented minorities and/or research on communities of color to the center stage.n.studies/)

Reading Group: ESCape Into a Book: Gingerbread
- 4:00 pm
Join the European Studies Center at Pitt's virtual book club, exploring recent works by European authors. We will be reading "Gingerbread" by Helen Oyeyemi.
Discussion dates at February 16 and February 20. The deadline to RSVP is Thursday, January 7, 2021. A free copy of the book is available to the first 50 registrants who request one. The event is open to ALL.
RSVP at https://forms.gle/uTRwaCSdDVpd9Lir9

Lecture Series / Brown Bag: The EU Policy on Digitization (of Art Collections)
- 10:30 am

Lecture: Creature Comforts: Animals, Zoos, and Exotic Trafficking in Eurasia
- Tracy McDonald and Marianna Szczygielska
- 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
- Zoom
A live interview with Tracy McDonald (McMaster University) and Marianna Szczygielska (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science).
Register via Zoom here: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvceCgqT0sGtVWgst7n6RrFJuAqyKj89Ag
The existential threat of climate change has inspired renewed intellectual engagement with the Anthropocene. Eurasian Studies are no exception to this trend. In the last decade, studies that grapple with the past, present, and potential future of the human-nature dialectic are on the uptick. These studies have forced us to reconsider intellectual and ideological paradigms, sources, mission, and role of scholar in society.
Nature’s Revenge: Ecology, Animals, and Waste in Eurasia seeks to bring some of this scholarship and activism to a wider public through a series of live-recorded interviews. The goal is to illuminate recent scholarship and complicate our understanding of the Eurasian Anthropocene and its place in our world.

Panel Discussion: Crimes Against Humanity in Latin America Series: Nicaragua
- Pedro X. Molina, Mario Sánchez, and Anahí Napal
- 6:00 pm
While the CLAS @ Pitt Crimes Against Humanity Series has previously focused on well-documented and covered crimes and government policies in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Brazil in particular), more recent, ongoing issues involving large-scale dynamics are ever more important. One such case is Colombia and the worrying trend of targeted assassination of community activists involved in the transformational potential of the Peace Process that commenced with the 2016 Peace Accords of the Santos administration (2010-2018).
On February 25th, acclaimed editorial cartoonist Pedro X. Molina (in exile in the United States), UCA’s Mario Sánchez and Social Scientist and Anahí Napal (FUNIDES) will reflect on the events that followed the student protests of April 2018 in Nicaragua, as well as the antecedents and the political and social context within which their echo has impacted daily life in the country.
Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/y5t2vv4u

Teacher Training--Area Studies: From Our Classroom To Yours: Shibori - the Japanese Art of Shaped Resist Dyeing
- 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
A series of NCTA Master Teacher workshops on integrating East Asia into your classroom.
Join us for a teacher to teacher presentations that will cover content, strategies, implementation, and resources for bringing East Asia into your classroom this year.
From the science of dyeing to the mathematical precision of the patterns, shibori is a form of art that is applicable across multiple disciplines and age groups. This presentation will start with a brief history of shibori in Japan and move to the present day. Resources, practical tips, and suggestions for the use of non-traditional materials will be addressed, enabling teachers to share this art form with students in elementary grades to high school.

Lecture Series / Brown Bag: #BLM: Reception in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia
- 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
- Zoom
While the Black Lives Matter Movement has revived global conversations about racism and systemic inequality, its reception in our region manifested not only in anti-racist solidarity protests but also in pro-nationalist activism, most notably in Russia. Join us to discuss whether the Black Lives Matter movement will have a lasting impact on the struggle against racism and for civil rights and social equality in our region.
2:00-3:30 pm (ET) | 1:00-2:30 pm (CT) | 12:00-1:30 (MT) | 11:00 am-12:30 pm (PT)
MODERATOR:
Sibelan Forrester, Swarthmore College
SPEAKERS:
Angéla Kóczé, Central European University
Diana Kudaibergenova, University of Cambridge
Maxim Matusevich, Seton Hall University
Jakobi Williams, Indiana University, Bloomington
This event will be recorded and streamed live on the ASEEES Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/slavic.e.european.eurasian.studies/)
REGISTER IN ADVANCE: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/creees/race-in-focus
This event is part of the series "Race in Focus: From Critical Pedagogies to Research Practice and Public Engagement in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies." This series is designed to elevate conversations about teaching on race and continued disparities in our field while also bringing scholars from underrepresented minorities and/or research on communities of color to the center stage.

Lecture Series / Brown Bag: Critical Research on Africa: The Persistence of Slavery: An Economic History of Child Trafficking in Nigeria
- Dr. Robin Chapdelaine
- 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
- Zoom
How can a child’s value be understood in economic contexts where children are items of exchange? It is crucial that scholars and humanitarians recognize that slavery, in all its various forms, has evolved over time. The movement of bodies and the use of labor has always depended on immediate economic, social, and political circumstances, as well as the reiteration and application of force and control. It is only in this nuanced manner that we can truly understand the persistence of slavery as it relates to child trafficking in Southeastern Nigeria today.

Film: Film Screening and Discussion with the Director: Welcome to Chechnya
- 4:00 pm
- Vimeo
From Academy Award-nominated director David France ("How to Survive a Plague," "The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson") comes "Welcome to Chechnya," a powerful and eye-opening documentary about a group of activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ persecution in the repressive and closed Russian republic of Chechnya. With unfettered access and a commitment to protecting anonymity, this documentary exposes Chechnya's underrepresented atrocities while highlighting a group of people who are confronting brutality head-on. The film follows these LGBTQ+ activists as they work undercover to rescue victims and provide them with safe houses and visa assistance to escape persecution. "Welcome to Chechnya" is a Public Square Films production, directed by David France and produced by Alice Henty, Joy A. Tomchin, Askold Kurov, and David France.
This documentary has received numerous international awards, including at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale.
Moderator: Nancy Condee, Director, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Director of Graduate Studies, Slavic Languages and Literatures
Speakers: David France, Director, "Welcome to Chechnya"
Frank Karioris, Lecturer, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program
https://www.welcometochechnya.com
REGISTER TO ATTEND HERE: https://tinyurl.com/y2la43za

Panel Discussion: The Battle over Gender Equality in European Politics
- 12:00 pm
In recent years, the EU has adopted far-reaching legislation and policies to support LGBTIQ and women’s rights across a broad range of issues from the gender pay-gap through accession to the Istanbul Convention on violence against women to gender equality in culture and foreign affairs, biodiversity, and digital policy. Yet, several member states have resisted such transnational efforts and have not only removed the word “gender” from official documents and eliminated the field of gender studies in higher education but also rolled back gender rights within their boundaries, sparking sustained protests most notably in Poland and Hungary.
Join us for this interdisciplinary panel of scholars, policy-makers, activists, and politicians to explore the history and the future of gender equality in the EU.

Film: The Chambermaid
- 6:00 pm
- Online
The Chambermaid
Fiction / Brazil, Portugal / 2018
Fiction / Mexico / 2019
In her feature debut, Lila Ávilés turns the monotonous work day of Eve, a chambermaid at a high-end Mexico city hotel, into a beautifully observed film of rich detail. Set entirely in this alienating environment, with extended scenes taking place in the guest rooms, hallways, and cleaning facilities, this minimalist yet sumptuous movie brings to the fore Eve's hopes, dreams, and desires. As with Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, set in the same city, The Chambermaid salutes the invisible women caretakers who are the hard-working backbone of society.
—New Directors/New Films
Language: Spanish
Registration is required: https://tinyurl.com/y6fte2b3
Please register by March 8, 2021 at 3 pm. Around 5:30 pm you will receive an email with the Zoom link and instructions on how to access the film

Lecture: Waste Not, Want Not: Trash and Recycling in Eurasia
- Elana Resnick and Viktor Pal
- 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
- Zoom
A live interview with Elana Resnick (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Viktor Pal (University of Helsinki).
Register via Zoom here: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIsc-GtrDwqHtAFNYiaO2HUNQNc5_tI2B-m
The existential threat of climate change has inspired renewed intellectual engagement with the Anthropocene. Eurasian Studies are no exception to this trend. In the last decade, studies that grapple with the past, present, and potential future of the human-nature dialectic are on the uptick. These studies have forced us to reconsider intellectual and ideological paradigms, sources, mission, and role of scholar in society.
Nature’s Revenge: Ecology, Animals, and Waste in Eurasia seeks to bring some of this scholarship and activism to a wider public through a series of live-recorded interviews. The goal is to illuminate recent scholarship and complicate our understanding of the Eurasian Anthropocene and its place in our world.
- ‹ previous
- 2 of 4
- next ›