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Pitt's International Centers and Institutes

University Center for International Studies

Multinational Flags Waving

Students at the University of Pittsburgh can embark on international adventures in the classroom and beyond through Pitt’s University Center for International Studies (UCIS). UCIS is a Universitywide organization that encompasses various specializations in international studies—including the Asian Studies Center, Center for Latin American Studies, Russian and East European Studies Center, and the European Union Center of Excellence and European Studies Center. Pitt is one of fewer than 20 institutions nationwide to have four or more programs recognized as National Resource Centers by the U.S. Department of Education. With these exceptional centers providing students with certificates and life-changing study abroad opportunities, Pitt is recognized as a leading institution in international scholarship and education worldwide.

Contact:

Larry Feick, director of UCIS, 412-648-7374 (office), feick@pitt.edu

Pitt News Representative Amanda Leff, 412-624-4238 (office), 412-337-3350 (cell), aleff@pitt.edu

Asian Studies Center

ASC

The Asian Studies Center has been designated since 1988 as an undergraduate National Resource Center in East Asian Studies by the U.S. Department of Education. This distinction identifies the center as being among the best and most comprehensive in the country in research, public service, and teaching about East Asia. The center’s mandate is to promote an enhanced understanding of the nations of East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands through exceptional undergraduate and graduate academic programs, strong interdisciplinary faculty development, and energetic community outreach. The center is also home to Pitt’s Confucius Institute, which is sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Education's Office of Chinese Language Council International. The institute promotes Chinese language and culture study in the United States.

Contact:

Katherine Carlitz—412-648-7371 (office), kcarlitz@pitt.edu

Web site

Pitt News Representative Amanda Leff, 412-624-4238 (office), 412-337-3350 (cell), aleff@pitt.edu

Center for Latin American Studies

Latin America

Since 1964, Pitt has been committed to a Latin American studies program of unique depth and richness. The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) has become internationally recognized for excellence in undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and outreach.

CLAS is designated as a comprehensive National Resource Center on Latin America by the U.S. Department of Education. It offers students multidisciplinary academic training programs of the highest quality that complement a degree in a discipline or profession. Students who choose to combine multidisciplinary Latin American area and language training with a degree in a traditional discipline or profession strengthen the applicability of their CLAS education. The teaching expertise and research specializations within CLAS encompass all of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and many of the English-speaking countries. Pitt’s Eduardo Lozano Latin American Library Collection is one of the top 10 Latin American collections in the United States.

Contact:

Kathleen Musante DeWalt—412-648-7391 (office), kmdewalt@pitt.edu

Web site

Pitt News Representative Amanda Leff, 412-624-4238 (office), 412-337-3350 (cell), aleff@pitt.edu

Center for Russian and East European Studies

St. Basil's

The Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh (REES) is an interdisciplinary academic center focusing on central and eastern Europe and the successor states of the Soviet Union.

REES is a Title VI National Resource Center funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and as such plays a vital role in fostering scholarship and teaching on this region. REES faculty are not only from the humanities and social sciences, the traditional academic homes of area studies scholarship, but also from the professional schools such as business, law, education, public health, and public and international affairs. REES provides support for faculty and student research in the region, including undergraduate research.

Contact:

Robert Hayden— 412-648-7407 (office), rhayden@pitt.edu

Web site

Pitt News Representative Amanda Leff, 412-624-4238 (office), 412-337-3350 (cell), aleff@pitt.edu

European Union Center of Excellence / European Studies Center

EU Flag

In cooperation with academic and research units throughout the University, the European Union Center of Excellence/European Studies Center (EUCE/ESC) offers a wide array of programs for students, faculty, and the public throughout the tri-state region; research and funding opportunities; extensive outreach on Europe; and sponsors visits of scholars and practitioners to the University.

The EUCE is one of 10 centers designated as such and funded by the European Commission. It highlights issues of applied public policy and the process of European political, economic, and legal integration. Drawing on the resources of the centers, both undergraduate and graduate students at Pitt are able to learn about Europe from a linguistic, literary, artistic, historical, economic, political, sociological, legal, and public policy perspective. In 2008, Pitt acquired the library from the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States, in Washington, D.C., which holds the most extensive collection of public EU documents and publications in North America. The collection is part of Pitt's University Library System.

Contact:

Alberta Sbragia—412-648-7405 (office), sbragia@pitt.edu

Web site

Pitt News Representative Amanda Leff, 412-624-4238 (office), 412-337-3350 (cell), aleff@pitt.edu

Ford Institute for Human Security

Child Soldier

In the fallout from civil unrest in Liberia, a child is stolen and forced into war camp in the thick, green arms of the jungle. Trained to shoot, maim and kill, the boy becomes a soldier. He is 7. Across the globe, from Colombia to the Congo, there are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers. They are the youngest faces of people battered by war, genocide, human rights abuses and other conditions that destabilize nations. At the University of Pittsburgh, the Ford Institute for Human Security, part of the Matthew P. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, is studying such issues, including the broader problem of human trafficking. The institute—one of few of its kind on an American campus—seeks solutions to such injustices. It is in the vanguard of examining such international issues as refugees, displaced people, and child soldiers.

Contact:

Taylor Seybolt, interim director of Pitt's Ford Institute for Human Security, 412-624-7918 (office), seybolt@@pitt.edu

Pitt News Representative Amanda Leff, 412-624-4238 (office), 412-337-3355 (cell), aleff@pitt.edu

The Global Studies Program

Global Studies

The Global Studies Program promotes interdisciplinary and cross-cultural learning and research on critical world issues. The program develops global competence in students, educators, and members of the community at large. GSP offers certificate programs, academic colloquia, seminars, events, and research and grant opportunities for students and faculty.

More than 300 Pitt faculty members are affiliated with the program. Each academic year, they teach hundreds of courses on global themes in more than 75 departments and school.

Contact:

Larry Feick, interim director, 412-648-7374 (office), feick@pitt.edu

Pitt News Representative Amanda Leff, 412-624-4238 (office), 412-337-3350 (cell), aleff@pitt.edu

International Business Center

IBC

Founded in 1990 as a joint venture of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and the University Center for International Studies, the International Business Center (IBC) is a unique resource that develops, operates, and supports programs designed to build international competence and expertise in business students, faculty, and practitioners and help businesses enhance their international competitiveness.

The IBC was one of the initial five national resource Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), funded by the U.S. Department of Education to bring global thinking to faculty and students at select institutions. Today 31 CIBERs operate throughout the United States. Over the years, IBC has used grants to fund faculty research, study abroad scholarship and programs, international business conferences, foreign language instruction, and other important international ventures. More recently, the IBC has developed programs for business and engineering students to study in Brazil, Chile, Germany, China, and India.

Contact:

Josephine Olson, 412-648-1715 (office), jolson@katz.pitt.edu

Pitt News Representative Amanda Leff, 412-624-4238 (office), 412-337-3350 (cell), aleff@pitt.edu

Pittsburgh Experimental Economics Laboratory (PEEL)

PEEL

You won’t find white lab coats here . . . rather, researchers and undergraduate students testing new economic theories and mechanisms in this state-of-the art facility on the second floor of Posvar Hall. One of the nation’s leading labs of its type, PEEL invites economists to test theories by using simple economic decision-making experiments. From designing new mechanisms to increasing charitable giving to testing auction theory, PEEL has 40 computer workstations and three servers allow for a broad range of instructional or research applications.

Contact:

John Duffy, 412-648-1733 (office), 412-605-7006 (cell), jduffy@pitt.edu, Web site >

Pitt News Representative Sharon Blake, 412,624-4364 (office), 412-277-6926 (cell), blake@pitt.edu