January 19 | Spring 2021
From the Director: Dr. Michael Goodhart
Dear friends,

Please excuse a rather long message, but these are precedented times. The insurrectionist mob that stormed the US Capitol building on January 6th is an act of racially-motivated domestic terrorism with a long and sad American pedigree. Even if we confine our focus to attempts to overthrow elected governments in the name of white supremacy, precedents exist: the so-called “Battle of Canal Street” in 1874 in New Orleans was an attempt by the self-styled Crescent City White League to oust a Republican governor whose reconstruction policies promoting rights and dignity for newly emancipated Black citizens were regarded as treacherous by the mob; the Wilmington Insurrection [North Carolina] of 1898, saw thousands of white supremacists remove elected Fusion party officials, expel them from the city, and install their own government, pausing along the way to loot and destroy Black-owned businesses and neighborhoods and kill dozens if not hundreds of people.

These shocking events can come as no surprise after four years of baseless rhetoric about election fraud and a re-election campaign the President intended to launch on Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma, site of perhaps the nation’s worst of many white riots over many years (a culture of violence so pervasive and devastating that civil rights leaders in 1951 petitioned the embryonic United Nations to investigate the United States for genocide). Of course, Trump himself was only following in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, who infamously appeared in Neshoba County, Mississippi in 1980 to advance his bid for the presidency by invoking “states’ rights” mere miles from where three members of the Congress for Racial Equality were stalked, kidnapped, shot, and buried by law enforcement officers working with local terrorists.

What, you might ask, has any of this got to do with global studies? As I listened to president-elect Joe Biden and countless others insist that “this is not who we are,” my mind went immediately to the connections between what people of color have endured in this country for centuries and US policy abroad. How would people in Santiago, Tehran, Tegucigalpa, Kinshasa, Guatemala City, Manila, San Salvador, or many other cities and countries react to such a statement? A joke coming out of South America ran that the coup attempt failed because there was no US Embassy in Washington to coordinate and provide logistical support; another, of unknown provenance, went that the coup was the result of “work at home” policies implemented by the CIA during the pandemic. Like all good gallows humor, these ripostes make a deadly serious point: the USA has been fomenting coups abroad, with vigor, for a very long time.

One of our duties as global educators is to ensure that our students understand this history and wrestle with its implications. Of course, even mentioning it invites accusations of “partisanship," "liberal bias” or even “hating America.” These charges are absurd but nonetheless dangerous, exerting a chilling effect on our research and teaching on domestic and international forms of imperialism in the name of a false “neutrality” or “nonpartisanship” that abets the status quo. We see the fruits of such denialism all around us. That said, we should be clear-eyed about the bipartisan support for US imperialism: the USA has over 800 military bases in 70 countries and spends close to $800 billon dollars annually on “defense,” more than the next 10 countries combined. Congress recently overrode the President's veto of the "defense" bill that funds these priorities with bipartisan supermajorities; likewise anti-democratic coup-making and race-baiting politics know no party loyalties.

In a recent interview on Democracy Now! Filipino scholar, activist, and parliamentarian Walden Bello put events in Washington into global perspective, emphasizing the growing global ethnonationalist backlash against neoliberalism that is roiling the politics of Brazil, India, Turkey, the UK, Hungary – indeed, much of Europe – and of course the United States. Two things were striking about this interview. First, it reminded me how rare it is to hear a perspective on American politics from a commentator based outside the United States (and how hypertrophied a muscle American Exceptionalism has become). Second, it reinforced my conviction that any attempt to make sense of these events and processes in purely domestic terms is doomed to fail. While white supremacy in America has a distinctive history and character, it is also imbricated in transnational processes that we ignore at our peril – from settler colonial conquest of North America and the trans-Atlantic slave trade to rising authoritarian populism and what my co-author Jeanne Morefield has called “empire without imperialism” following the Second World War. Likewise, neoliberalism and the various forms of opposition to it are inherently global phenomena, as are the complex gender dynamics animating militarism and virulent ethnonationalism.

At the Global Studies Center we do not shy away from critical investigation and debate of these topics and work to thematize them in our programming, such as in our seminar series on Empire, our Ferguson Voices exhibition and programming, our Conversations on 1619, our just-concluded pop-up course on Racialized Police Violence in Global Perspective, and our course on Covid-19, Racism, and Public Health this semester. (I’m deeply grateful to our partners in the Department of Africana Studies for their collaboration in many of these initiatives.)

Global studies has the critical and conceptual tools – and the intellectual responsibility – to grapple with events like those we are witnessing today in uniquely powerful ways, including by exploring how what are conventionally treated as separate “domestic” and “international ” issues are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. We welcome your ideas and participation as we strive to fulfill this responsibility.

yours,
Michael
Faculty Fellow: Dr. Michele Reid-Vazquez
Transnational Dialogues in Afrolatinidad
Michele Reid-Vazquez, Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies, conducts research on the African Diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Atlantic World and Afro-Latinx History in the USA.

As the 2020-2021 GSC Faculty Fellow, Dr. Reid-Vazquez has organized an interdisciplinary webinar series, "Transnational Dialogues in Afrolatinidad." The series seeks to expand transnational, transregional, and interdisciplinary exchange on contemporary and historical issues in Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Studies.


Friday, February 5 | 1-2:30 PM - "Transnational Dialogues in Afrolatinidad: Gender, Identity, and Health" co-moderated by Dr. Michele Reid-Vazquez and Dr. Keila Grinberg, Professor of History at Universidade Federal do Estado. (Virtual.) Register for the webinar here.

This webinar focuses on gender, race, identity, and health, particularly involving the experiences of Afro-Brazilians, Afro-Argentines, and U.S.-based Afro-Latinxs. Scholars working at the intersections of Africana, Latinx, Latin American, and gender studies will explore the ways that these issues overlap and impact Afro-Latin Americans and their diasporic communities in the U.S.
 
The event is sponsored by the Global Studies Center and the Center for Latin American Studies, in collaboration with the Department of Africana Studies' Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Studies Initiative at the University of Pittsburgh. Featured panelists include Dr. Kia Caldwell, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Dr. Erika Edwards of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Dr. Nancy López of the University of New Mexico; and Dr. Paul Joseph López Oro of Smith College.

Friday, March 5 | 1-2:30 PM - "Transnational Dialogues in Afrolatinidad: Education and Anti-Blackness" co-moderated by Dr. Gina Garcia of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy and Christian Alberto of the School of Education (Virtual.) Webinar registration link to be provided later.

This final webinar of the series focuses on education and anti-blackness, particularly involving experiences in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Scholars working at the intersections of Education, History, and Latinx, Latin American, and cultural studies will explore the ways that these issues overlap and impact Afro-Latin Americans and their diasporic communities in the U.S. Featured panelists include: Dr. Amalia Dache of the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Solsirey del Moral of Amherst College; Dr. Dalia Muller of the University of Buffalo; and Dr. Maria A. Soares of University of the Afro Brazilian Integration (UNILAB).
Global Academic Partnership (GAP): Dr. Adam Lowenstein
The Global Horror Studies Archival and Research Network
Adam Lowenstein, Professor of English and Film and Media Studies, studies the horror genre. He is working with colleagues to diversify and globalize the Horror Studies Archive recently created by Pitt's University Library System. The Global Horror Studies Archival and Research Network (GHSARN) will be the first of its kind.

Horror is a truly global vocabulary. Each nation has its own historically- and culturally- specific inflections regarding horror, but nearly every country in the world has an artistic horror tradition of some kind that is recognizable through the lens of the others, and all are shaped by transnational influences and global developments.

Tentative Dates of (virtual) events to kick off the semester are as follows -- check out Dr. Lowenstein's page on our website for the latest information on these and additional events!

January 22 | 8 PM - Horror Studies Working Group Broadcast, co-sponsored with Pitt's University Library System
The George A. Romero Foundation (GARF) Network talks with members of Pitt’s Horror Studies Working Group (HSWG) about their mission and projects.

January 25 | 7-8 PM - Beyond the Bride of Frankenstein: Monsters and Other Fearsome Women," co-sponsored with Pitt's University Library System
Lecture featuring women horror authors and scholars Melanie Anderson, Lisa Kroger, and Lisa Morton. Read more here.

January 28 | Time TBA - Queer Horror Film Club with Bridget Keown: The Hunger, co-sponsored with Pitt's University Library System
Bridget Keown, Lecturer in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, will lead an hour-long discussion on Tony Scott’s The Hunger (1983), starring David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve.

January 29 | 4-5 PM - Global Horror Studies Archival and Research Network, co-sponsored with Pitt's University Library System
Colleagues from Pitt as well as Canada, the UK, and Australia will meet for a preliminary discussion of the mission and upcoming projects of the GHSARN. Join here.

February 3 | Time TBA - Malaysian and Singaporean horror film screening series kicks off with Sumpah Pontianak, co-sponsored with Pitt's University Honors College
Watch here.

February 4 | 7 PM - Special premiere documentary screening of George Romero and Pittsburgh: The Early Years and discussion, co-sponsored with Pitt's University Library System in partnership with the Horror Studies Working Group.
The documentary was created by Pitt students enrolled in Carl Kurlander's "Making the Documentary" course and will include the presentation of the annual Pioneer Award to Duane Jones, learn more here.

February 6 | 8-9 PM - Visit/Conversation from leading Mexican Canadian horror director Gigi Saul Guerrero, co-sponsored with Pitt's University Library System
Guerrero will showcase some of her horror film work and discuss filmmaking with members of the Pitt community. Guerrero is co-founder of Luchagore Productions in Vancouver, Canada, and directed her feature debut Culture Shock for Blumhouse Productions Television. She has gained recognition for her numerous short films, many of which look at Mexican culture and experiences through horror.
Global Academic Partnership (GAP): Dr. Caitlin Bruce
Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Project (HCUAP) Other Voices, Other Walls: Disrespecting the Border
Caitlin Bruce, Associate Professor in the Department of Communications, will facilitate this Vanka Murals' Table Talk that will discuss the dialogues, motifs, and collaborations emerging from the collaborative mural project, Disrespecting the Border, that was created for the Latinx community of Pittsburgh in October 2019. This conversation will highlight the role of mural art as a resource to think through migration and border politics between visiting artist Gil Rocha and local artists Leah Patgorski and Max Gonzales facilitated by Camilo Ruiz and Marisol Vilella Balderrama.
 
The program is free but registration is required -- Register here!
Scholar-At-Risk (SAR) Program Update:
Dr. Simten Coşar & Mai Khoi
Dr. Simten Coşar, the inaugural faculty visitor under Pitt's newly-established Scholar at Risk (SAR) program, is developing an innovative oral history project to record interviews with exiled artists, authors, poets, and scholars residing in the City of Asylum, Pitt's generous partner in the SAR program. In collaboration with GSC videographer Keith Reimink, the work will provide a medium for amplifying diverse global voices by re-globalizing the stories of exile(s) as told in their own voices.

Dr. Coşar will also be teaching a 1-credit pop-up course this semester on human rights research and engagement of the SAR community (see full description below.)
Mai Khoi, a Vietnamese artist and activist, is an Artist Protection Fund Fellow in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh, with the cooperation of City of Asylum and the International Free Expression Project. Khoi’s music is an electrifying mix of social protest, traditional forms, and experimental jazz.

She will perform an autobiographical piece - Bad Activist - on January 27 at 12 PM as part of the Pitt Arts' Artful Wednesdays initiative. Bad Activist combines storytelling with a state-of-the-art music performance. Stream the performance here.*

WESA radio (90.5 fm) will air a story on Mai Khoi beginning Tuesday, Jan 19; you can also read about her struggles with Facebook in this recent piece in The Intercept.

This semester, Mai Khoi is set to lead the virtual pre-lecture discussion of Ocean Vuong's On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous as part of GSC's Four Evenings initiative (details below). She will also be participating in several courses as a visitor and guest lecturer.

*GSC is grateful to Cynthia Croot, Associate Professor and Head of Performance in Pitt's Department of Theatre Arts, for her expertise and guidance in helping to make Bad Activist a success!
Global Studies Pop-Up Courses Offerings
*Web-based and open to K-16 Educators, Pitt staff, students, and faculty, and members of the Global Studies community*
PS 1556/33150
Human Rights: Scholars at Risk
Pop-Up Course
Wednesdays 3:25-5:55 PM
February 3-March 17

This seminar provides students with the opportunity to develop human rights research and advocacy skills through direct engagement with the cases of threatened members of the global higher education community in cooperation with the Scholars at Risk (SAR) Network’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project. Human Rights is one of the exceptional topics that speaks the universal language for rights advocacy.

This course is taught by GSC's Visiting Scholar-at-Risk, Dr. Simten Coşar!
Transforming Cities: Cities & Sustainability
Mini-Course*
February 5-7

This course will bring together the expertise of faculty from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, as well as practitioners to provide a multidisciplinary approach to the interconnections between health and sustainability, the role cities can have on climate change, low-emission growth and clean energy, the importance of access to resources, the need for sustainable transportation, and the practices of sustainable consumption, among others.

Registration ends February 3 - see our website for more details.
AFRCNA 0400
COVID-19, Racism and Public Health
Pop-Up Course
Tuesdays
January 19-May 1

This course offers an opportunity for students to learn about the compounding effects of multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage and how they impact COVID-19 exposure, cases, and deaths. The obstacles that inequalities create may not be easily discernible or understood by looking at or thinking about racism, health and now the impact of COVID-19, among African Americans, in a conventional way. This course is currently at capacity.

This course is taught by Dr. Abi Fapohunda of the Africana Studies Department.
Student Programming
Congratulations to Global Studies Center December 2020 Graduates!
Global Health Certificate:
  • Anderinsola Popoola (Psychology)
  • Mandeep Saini (Biology)
Global Studies Certificate
  • Alexandra Curtis (Philosophy, Politics)
  • Noelle Gulick (Anthropology)
Global Studies Student + Alumni Meet'n Greets

Elaine Linn, GSC Assistant Director for Academic Affairs, hosts these forums where current and curious students can learn more about GSC resources and programs, exchange information about classes, internships, student clubs, and share their input on what they’d like to see from the Global Studies Center in the future.

This spring, the series will feature Global Studies alumni who will share career insights and offer a perspective on how their certificate work has been valuable to them professionally.

Mark your calendars for these virtual sessions!

February 3, 2021 at 12 PM | GSC Abroad: Views from Europe | Join Here!
Grab lunch and enjoy an informal conversation with GSC alumni living in Europe. They will share their experiences living and working in Europe during COVID, going to graduate school abroad, their views from across the pond.
  • Evelyn Bigini '19 (Nursing) is pursuing an MS in Global Health in the Netherlands
  • Sarah Sellers ’19 (French) is teaching English in France
  • Pat Bewick ’13 (Political Science) is working with refugees in Germany.

February 16, 2021 at 6 PM| Pursuing Lives of Impact | Join Here!
Global Studies alumni are making an impact. Join this informal conversation to about their passions and how they have incorporated this important into their lives.
  • Jodi Lincoln ’14 (Anthropology, Film Studies) is advocating for incarcerated in Allegheny Country Jail
  • Nick Collins ’13 (Economics) works for a financial company whose mission to create and preserve affordable housing and healthy food retail in San Francisco
  • Chelsea Frimpong '14, MPH (Political Science, Africana Studies) started Believe In Your Cool, an organization for Black womxn (21-35) to “own their identity and step into their purpose.”

Contact Elaine if you have any questions or if you are an alum or part of a student organizations interested in speaking or joining the conversation.
Careers in the Global/International Arena:
A Virtual Trip from DC to California
February 22-26, 2021

Take advantage of this opportunity to meet with professionals working in the fields of global and public health, human rights and human security, international development, and intelligence and diplomacy. There will be a happy hour with alumni on the final day of this week of career exploration on February 26, 2021 at 5 PM.

This Virtual Career trip is a join program of GSC, the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, and the African Studies Program

Over 20 sessions have been scheduled - stay tuned for more details!
Research Toolkit, January 29, 2021 at 2 PM

Are you interested in doing independent research? Are you unsure about how to get a research project started? This workshop, led by Dr. Michael Goodhart, GSC Director, and Dr. K. Frances Lieder, UCIS Visiting Professor of Contemporary Global Issues, will walk you through the process of formulating and pursuing an independent academic research project in the social sciences or humanities. Students will get an overview of the research process, learn how to develop clear research questions, and take away practical tips for getting started and getting through. This workshop is for anyone curious about research, but we especially encourage students pursuing or considering a BPHIL/IAS to attend.
Seniors, need help with your digital portfolio?
Deadline: March 1, 2021
Students graduating this Spring are encouraged to continue working on their digital portfolios. Elaine and GSC intern, Annette are available to meet with you to discuss.

To schedule a meeting, click here! Reach out to Annette Han to troubleshoot technical issues per digital portfolio.
Community and K-12 Educator Programming
Teaching The Global Water Crisis | February 8, 10 and 12, 5:30-8:30 PM
A Multi-Disciplinary Mini-Course for K-12 Educators
Share our flyer!

Significant portions of the world’s population lack access to sufficient quantities of water or to water of adequate quality – standards enshrined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This unfolding global water crisis is making life precarious for billions of people and will increasingly foment environmental conflict, spur transnational migration, strain ecological systems, and exacerbate existing inequalities around the planet.

This free, cross-disciplinary mini-course for K-12 educators will explore the global water crisis through attention to its geo-political, cultural, economic, and technological aspects, with particular attention to scholars and practitioners working within the environmental, political, and technological framework to address these challenges using a people-centered approach

This mini-course will be co-hosted with the University of Pittsburgh's National Consortium for Teaching About Asia and co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Center and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.
Four Evenings --
Global Literary Encounters

In conjunction with the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures program's "Ten Evenings" series, GSC is again hosting "Four Evenings," pre-lecture discussions that put prominent world authors and their work in a global perspective.

Open to series subscribers and the Pitt community, these evening discussions, led by Pitt experts, provide additional insight on prominent writers and engaging issues in a virtual setting. A limited number of tickets to the author lectures is available.


For questions and more information, contact Maja.
FOUR EVENINGS SPRING 2021 SCHEDULE

Ocean Vuong - On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Thursday, March 18 | 6 PM (Discussion)
Monday, March 22 | 7:30 PM (Lecture)
Discussion to be led by Mai Khoi, GSC's Artist Protection Fund Fellow in Residence

Bernardine Evaristo - Girl, Woman, Other
Thursday, April 1 | 6 PM (Discussion)
Monday, April 5 | 7:30 PM (Lecture)
Discussion to be led by anupama jain, Executive Director of Pittsburgh's Gender Equity Commission in the Office of Mayor Peduto.
Global Issues Through Literature (GILS)
Moving: Exploring Global Migration Narratives

This reading group for K-16 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. Books and Act 48 credit hours are provided. Contact Maja with any questions.

Save the following dates - registration links here!

February 18, 2021 | To Swim Across the World by Frances and Ginger Park
Discussion led by Professor Seung-hwan Shin, Visiting Lecturer of Korean Studies, and Catherine Fratto, Engagement Coordinator, Asian Studies Center, co-sponsored with the Asian Studies Center

April 22, 2021 | Border: A Journey To The Edge of Europe by Kapka Kassabova
Discussion leader TBA, co-sponsored with the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies

May 20, 2021 | The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
Discussion leader TBA, co-sponsored with the Center for Latin American Studies
Virtual International Marketing Competition | April 2021

This competition is open to all high school students who are currently studying a world language. Teams may have a maximum of five members. No limits imposed on those students participating for a second or third time. Students may participate again with as many of the same team members as they like. The five-person team maximum remains in effect. Your task is to prepare a marketing strategy for a designated target market (United Arab Emirates-UAE) and product (GNC AMP Wheybolic). 

Your team will be required to give a 12-minute presentation during which you will present your marketing strategy to a panel of judges. There will be a 3-minute Q&A by the judges immediately after the 12-minute presentation.

More details to come! Check out the CCA page for more information.
Faculty News and Funding Opportunities
AY 20-21 Funding For Faculty

The Global Academic Partnership (GAP) grant provides $40,000 over two years to help Pitt scholars build and sustain meaningful global partnerships, to enrich the intellectual environment at Pitt through bringing innovative events and programming to campus, and to support and amplify the priorities of the Global Studies Center (applications due March 1).

(!) New this year, we will provide small groups of faculty members with up to $4,000 to support new and early collaborations oriented to applications for internal or external funding in the future. These collaborative grants are intended to facilitate interdisciplinary global scholarship. The application will be simple and straightforward, and the award will include basic administrative and logistical support of the kind that can be crucial in the early stages of new collaborations. We will also provide small grants up to $2,000 for faculty members to support innovative projects for engaged student learning. Details and deadline forthcoming. (!)

Finally, we will continue to award small research and travel grants this year – though with the caveat that we must follow the University’s guidance on travel. A limited number of grants will be available on a rolling basis.

Global Across the Curriculum (GXC)
In its fourth year, this interdisciplinary seminar is intended to help faculty incorporate global perspectives into their undergraduate courses. The seminar is open to full-time faculty members at the University of Pittsburgh’s main and regional campuses and aims to bring together people with varied disciplinary backgrounds and teaching experience. Faculty who are new to college teaching are particularly encouraged to participate. If these new or revised courses are taught on Pitt’s main campus, we hope they will serve as suitable options for students pursuing the popular undergraduate Global Studies and Global Health Certificate(s). They should also fulfill the newly revised global component (section F) of the General Education Requirements.

The seminar provides a great opportunity to meet and work with colleagues from a range of fields and to learn more about the many resources the Global Studies Center offers. Participants work with Global Studies core faculty members and instructional design specialists on their globally oriented courses, workshop their syllabi with other members of the group, and receive a grant for their participation.

2020
Matthew Lovett: Intro to Feminist Theory
Elissa Bullion: Global Perspectives on Food Security
Julie Beaulieu: Transgender Studies
Marcie Persyn: Classics Capstone: Fragments and Absences
Frank Karioris: GSWS 1141 Neoliberalism

2021
Jeanette Lehn: Writing for the Public: Global Publics
Jennifer Keating: Writing Places
Giuseppina Mecchia: Thinking the Earth: French Theories of the Environment
Drew Armstrong: Global Architecture 2
John Walsh: Global Fictions of Climate Change
Walter Carson: Introduction to Tropical Forest Ecology
Catching Up with GSC 19-20 Faculty Fellow
Dr. Jacques Bromberg, Department of Classics
As the 2019-2020 GSC Faculty Fellow, Dr. Bromberg convened a yearlong speaker series entitled "Classics and the Global" dedicated to highlighting the ways in which the study of antiquity can inform the study of globalization, and vice versa.

Since his fellowship ended, Dr. Bromberg has founded and launched a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that seeks to promote academic work engaging Classicists, Ancient Historians, and Archaeologists in dialogue about global issues, both historical and contemporary called Global Antiquities. Bromberg also authored a forthcoming book, Global Classics, which introduces readers to three key paradigms that are essential to research and teaching in global antiquities: transborder, transhistorical, and transdisciplinary. 
Mark your Calendars for our
Fall 2021 Mini-Course!


Cities & Social Justice Mini-Course
November 5-7, 2021
GLOBAL STUDIES CENTER | www.ucis.pitt.edu/global