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Dr. Belkys Torres, Executive Director of Global Engagement for the University Center for International Studies, and Dr. Macrina Lelei, Associate Director of the African Studies Program, were quoted in a recent @Pitt article about the university's Mentoring and Advising Summit that took place Thursday, March 7. Read the article here.

Sean Guillory, Digital Scholarships Coordinator for the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, hosts Sean's Russia Blog, a podcast dedicated to Eurasian history, politics, and society.

On March 7, Sean will conduct a live interview with Natalia Telepneva of the University of Warwick.

The Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact satellites were ideologically, materially, and geopolitically committed to aiding national liberation struggles in Africa during the Cold War. Communist states gave economic aid, provided weapons, and sent spies and military advisors. This live interview with Natalia Telepneva will explore the relationship between Soviet and Warsaw Pact policy and activities in African anti-colonial struggles, the role of espionage in the Cold War and the influence of Soviet and Warsaw Pact secret services on the development of state security in post-independent Africa.

You can listen to the podcast and read Sean's work at https://seansrussiablog.org/.

As reported in Pittwire: "Today, as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Moldova — a country sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania — Hogan credits the unconventional major and support he received at the Honors College for adding fuel to his passion for international studies. He also credits Honors College administration for steering him toward the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, a competitive program with the goal of guiding students toward careers in foreign service, which financed the last two years of his undergraduate degree and a two-year master’s program. He is the first Pickering Fellow from the University to receive an ambassadorship.

"Hogan went on to earn a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University but always remembered lessons learned in Pittsburgh."

Read the full story here.

The University of Pittsburgh has been named one of the nation’s top institutions for producing Fulbright students for the 2018-2019 academic year, according to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 380,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and other professionals—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential—with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding
solutions to shared international concerns.

This is the eighth time in nine years that Pitt has been ranked in the U.S. Student Program category. The competitive Fulbright U.S. Student Program supplies grants for individually-designed study and research projects or for English Teaching Assistant Programs around the world.

“This designation reflects highly on the University of Pittsburgh’s commitment to advancing educational excellence,” said Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. “We could not be prouder of our alumni who are participating in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. They truly epitomize our goal of embracing the world.”

Eleven students from Pitt earned the U.S. Student Program award this year, as noted in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Sunday.

“We are particularly proud to receive this honor in this Year of Pitt Global,” said Brian Primack, Dean of the University Honors College. “We are delighted that our students are consistently interested in and successful with pursuing these international awards. And we are more committed than ever to supporting them in these endeavors.”

Nine Pitt undergraduate alumni, one graduate alumna and one current PhD candidate are currently abroad in the Fulbright U.S. Student
Program. They are:

• Katherine Andrews, of York, Pa., who graduated in 2018 with a degree in Political Science, and certificates in Latin American Studies and Global Studies, is conducting research in Uruguay.
  • Study Abroad Programs:
    • CIEE Rio de Janeiro - Spring 2018
    • CIEE Rio de Janeiro - Summer, 2018
    • Center for Latin American Studies: Valladolid, Mexico - Summer 2017
    • ISA Meknes Spring, 2016
    • Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) Field Trip / Seminar – Summer 2015
• Alessandro Conway of Pittsburgh, Pa., who graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Philosophy in Economics and International and Area Studies, and a certificate in West European Studies, is studying at the Institut d’études politiques (Sciences Po) in France.
  • Study Abroad Program: Sciences Po - Spring 2017
• Rachel Di Cicco of El Dorado Hills, Ca., a PhD candidate in History of Art and Architecture, is conducting research in Austria.
• Soukaina Eljamri of East Stroudsburg, Pa., who graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, a minor in Chemistry, and a certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine, is teaching English in Malaysia.
• Lauren Manning of Annapolis, Md., who graduated in 2018 with a degree in Chinese, a minor in Legal Studies and a certificate in Global Studies, is teaching English in Taiwan.
  • Study Abroad Program: CET Shanghai - Summer 2014
• Monica Merante of Pittsburgh, Pa., who graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Philosophy in Anthropology and a minor in Classics, is teaching English in Malaysia.
  • Study Abroad Program:
    • Pitt in the Pacific - Spring 2016
    • OUR Borders and Belonging: London Field Studies - Summer 2017
• Kimberly Muth of Bangor, Pa., who graduated in 2018 with a Master of Education, is teaching English in the Czech Republic.
• Juliette Rihl of Langhorne, Pa., who graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Writing and Political Science and a minor in Italian, is teaching English in Tawian.
  • Study Abroad Program: Pitt in Florence - Spring 2016
• Logan Tuite of Bethel Park, Pa., who graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a certificate in Applied Simulation in Engineering Design, is pursuing a graduate degree in the Netherlands.
• Neelam Vohra of Langhorne, Pa., who graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, is teaching English in Indonesia.
  • Study Abroad Program: Comparative Healthcare in Graz - Summer 2016
• Stephanie Washington of Moon Township, Pa., who graduated in 2018 with a degree in Biology, minors in Spanish and Chemistry and certificates in American Sign Language and West European Studies, is conducting research in Spain.
  • Study Abroad Programs:
    • OUR Borders and Belonging: London Field Studies - Summer 2016
    • Pitt in Alcala - Summer 2016

Additionally, three Pitt affiliates received the Fulbright U.S. Scholar award, which offers awards for teaching, research or both in over 125 countries to faculty and other professionals. They are:

• David Berman of the School of Education will be in in Bosnia & Herzegovina working on a research project called School Days in Srebrenica: A Case Study of Schooling in the Extreme from Feb. through June 2019.
• Denis Sharapov (A&S ’17G) with the Department of Anthropology within the Dietrich
  School is lecturing within a project called Introducing Four-Field Anthropology to Western Siberia in Russia through June 2019.
• Colter Harper (A&S ’06G,’11G) with the Department of Music within the Dietrich School is lecturing and researching a project called Building a Recording Studio and Music Production Curriculum within the University of Ghana’s Department of Music through June 2019.

Several student film essays from the London Film Programme are slated to be screened at the BFI Future Film Festival in London. To read more about the festival and this exciting opportunity for Pitt students, read this article.

The recent Japanese Coming of Age Ceremony hosted by the University of Pittsburgh in collaboration with Hiroshima's Yasuda University was covered in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Read the column here.

The Asian Studies Center and its director, Professor Joseph S. Alter, organized the Himalayan Environmental Education and Policy Conference Nov. 29-Dec. 2, 2018 in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India. The program brought together more than 75 scholars of the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences to develop a multi-disciplinary understanding of environmental problems in the Himalayan region, as well as to formulate recommendations and increase public understanding and awareness in India and elsewhere in the world.

In addition to the Asian Studies Center, conference sponsors included the Study Abroad Program, the Year of Pitt Global, and Hanifl Centre in Mussoorie, where three PittGlobal study abroad programs are based.

Learn more about the Asian Studies Center.

Pitt ranked seventh among U.S. universities in employing the most international students with Optional Practical Training (OPT) work authorization in 2017. OPT is a period during which undergraduate and graduate students with F-1 status who have completed or have been pursuing their degrees for more than three months are permitted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to work for one year on a student visa towards getting practical training to complement their education. Notable top employers included Amazon, Intel, and Google. The six universities employing more OPT-authorized individuals than Pitt were the University of Michigan, Arizona State University, Johns Hopkins University, North Carolina State University, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The federal government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program published the 2017 data.

The University of Pittsburgh's Nationality Rooms got a special mention as the the city of Pittsburgh made the #3 spot on National Geographic Traveler UK's 2019 Cool List. Pittsburgh is the only U.S. location to make the list for 2019. See the entire article and the entry here.

Vice Provost of Global Affairs and Director of the University Center for International Studies Ariel Armony wrote the following op-ed in the aftermath of the highly publicized meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the recent G20 summit. Originally published in Spanish by Argentinian newspaper La Nación, the following is an English translation.

A “Cold Fight” Defines the Future of an Uncertain Relationship

Ariel C. Armony, Vice Provost for Global Affairs, University of Pittsburgh

December 2, 2018

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA--The meeting between President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires was anticipated by the global press—and especially North American media—with big expectations. The buildup gave the impression of waiting for a historic “Buenos Aires Summit” that would mark the beginning of a new cold war—or prevent it. Even after the meeting, the future of the relationship between the two superpowers is uncertain.  

The excessive emphasis on the results of the meeting between the two leaders—their first face-to-face in more than a year—overshadowed a fundamental aspect of the conclave: Trump came into it in a position of weakness. Specifically, three factors limited his ability to negotiate. 

First was the United States’ decision to negotiate with China on its own. The United States damaged its own interests by not advancing its trade agenda with its allies, especially the European Union, that would have permitted it to go further than the current commercial dispute defined by tariffs and counter-tariffs. We must not forget that just three days after becoming president, Trump gave China a gift by leaving the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). 

The TPP, which did not include China, included 40 percent of the world economy and established conditions to create an economic superblock that would have affirmed North American leadership in Asia and the Pacific. In his first month in office, Trump closed the United States off from the world, creating a leadership vacancy that China, with pleasure, jumped into. 

Second, the Trump Administration has not succeeded in defining a coherent approach toward China. While experts debate whether Obama’s policy of dialogue and compromise had been a failure or not, they strongly agree that a new strategy is necessary. 

The Trump Administration is divided between those who want a diplomatic approach of compromise and those who want to apply pressure on China. Both positions have their risks, but regardless of the approach, this period of indecision has hurt the United States’ ability to negotiate. 

Transformation

Finally, we are living in a moment of fundamental transformation of the world order, marked by a regression of democratic values. In this context, the loss of the United States’ outward-facing legitimacy is important. Beyond the serious problems facing U.S. democracy, the North American superpower represents an alternative political model to the autocracy of the People’s Republic of China. Changes in perception toward the two countries on the world stage are worrying. 

Public opinion surveys show international anxiety regarding the role of the United States on global issues and the consensus of China as a much more important global figure than it was a decade ago. A majority of people in the world believe that the U.S. government does not have the interests of other countries in mind when it makes political decisions. More than 50 percent of Europeans believe that the United States does not respect individual rights, substantially more than just five years ago. 

Although a global majority still prefers the United States as a global leader, a higher percentage express more confidence in Xi Jinping than in Trump. 

This positive perception of China is particularly strong in Africa, the Middle East and parts of the Asian continent. In Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, public opinion shows more confidence in the Chinese government than in the United States. Six years ago, only Argentina held this view. 

Perhaps, as Li Xue of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said, these are not the conditions of a new cold war. In his opinion, the United States and China are embroiled in a “cold fight” in that the two powers are competing to establish a new equilibrium. We will see if the United States finds the necessary ability to balance its inconsistent position.