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Selected Other Pitt Centers and Programs

Center for American Music

Pitt's Center for American Music hosts international researchers, historians, film producers, and authors who want to study 19th-century American music and its role in U.S. history. Using the collected works of famed Pittsburgh songwriter Stephen Foster as a foundation, the center serves as a resource for scholars from around the globe. It is the driving force behind Voices Across Time, a comprehensive five-week institute held every two years in which teachers from across the United States come to Pitt to learn ways of incorporating American music into their classrooms.

Contact:

Deane Root,professor of music, director of the Stephen Foster Memorial, and Fletcher Hodges Jr. Curator of the Center for American Music, 412-624-7775 (work), 412-521-7570 (home), dlr@pitt.edu

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

Center for Disaster Management

The Center for Disaster Management in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs supports research, education, and training projects that focus on extreme events. The goal of the center is to develop a coherent approach for research and analysis on policy issues related to disaster risk reduction and management that cross interorganizational, interdisciplinary, and interjurisdictional boundaries. To meet this goal, the center engages in professional education and training of the next generation of policy makers, analysts, and managers who will be responsible for disaster risk reduction and management in public, private, and nonprofit organizations. The need for such a center is evident in the increasing number of public, private, and nonprofit organizations that are re-examining their capacity to withstand threats from all hazards—natural, technological, and deliberate.

Contact:

Louise Comfort—412-648-7606 (office), lkc@pitt.edu

Website

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

English Language Institute

English Language Institute

For more than 40 years, the University of Pittsburgh’s English Language Institute (ELI) in the Department of Linguistics has been teaching English as a second language (ESL) courses for international student who are planning to attend colleges and universities in North America, wish to improve their general ability in English, or are already admitted to Pitt and need some additional development of their language skills. Most ELI instructors have master’s or doctoral degrees in either linguistics or teaching English as a second language. Many of the instructors have lived in other countries or researched foreign-language learning. ELI attracts between 100 and 160 students from such countries as Argentina, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Thailand, and Turkey.

In addition to offering full-time classes, ELI also provides part-time classes for foreign professionals looking to improve their business English and pronunciation. Many students also participate in ELI’s extra-curricular activities, including field trips to places like Washington, D.C., and Chicago to broaden their understanding of American culture. Students also interact with one another and take part in the community. Most recently, Pitt’s ELI students have volunteered at the John J. Kane Regional Center in Glen Hazel, allowing them the opportunity to practice English and learn more about American culture. ELI also is involved in productive scholarship and research, including the Pitt Series in ESL textbooks and their work with the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center.

Contact:

Alan Juffs, associate professor of linguistics, chair of the Department of Linguistics, and director of ELI, 412-624-5901 (office), 412-551-4914 (cell); juffs@pitt.edu

Pitt News Representative Patricia Lomando White, 412-624-9101 (office); 412-215-9932 (cell); laer@pitt.edu

Center for International Legal Education

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The Center for International Legal Education (CILE) provides a global approach to legal education at the University’s School of Law. For JD students, CILE offers a certificate program in international and comparative law, languages for lawyers courses, summer scholarships, moot court competitions, visiting professors, overseas internships, and global area studies scholarships and opportunities. For foreign lawyers, CILE offers a personalized Master of Laws (LL.M.) program with internship opportunities, a JSD program for supervised research, a U.S. Law and Language course providing a thorough introduction to legal English and American law and legal education, and opportunities for visiting scholars. Pitt may be the only law school in the United States to offer language courses designed for law students as part of the law school curriculum (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish).

CILE provides numerous programs and resources reaching legal professionals in many settings, including world-renowned programs on the U.N. Sales Convention, the authoritative CILE Studies series published by Oxford University Press, on-site training programs for foreign corporate counsel, and continuing legal education programs. The center has contracted with the Departments of State and Commerce to provide assistance to law faculties in transition countries that include LL.M. training for young faculty, summer school sessions at partner institutions, English for Lawyers courses, expert library development consultations, a Vis International Arbitration Moot consortium, research centers at partner institutions, and conferences with partner law faculties.

Contact:

Ronald A. Brand, professor of law and CILE director, 412-648-1307 (office); 412-820-9213 (home); 412-708-1707 (cell); rbrand@pitt.edu

Pitt News Representative Patricia Lomando White, 412-624-9101 (office); 412-215-9932 (cell); laer@pitt.edu

Center on Race and Social Problems

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Researchers at the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP), housed within Pitt’s School of Social Work, constantly work to improve the quality of life for Pittsburgh’s underrepresented populations. The center focuses on race, diversity, gender, and class issues. Among other projects, CRSP researchers have determined that offering a regimen of social services to former prisoners reduces recidivism by 50 percent; have helped local governments do business with minority and women-owned firms; and have examined how to help young people as they age out of the child welfare system.

Contact:

Larry Davis, CRSP founder and director, dean, and Donald M. Henderson Professor in the School of Social Work, 412-624-6304 (work), ledavis@pitt.edu

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

Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence

IEE Photo

The Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence (IEE) helps people realize their dreams. The IEE is growing the region’s economy by nurturing and promoting new product commercialization, entrepreneurial activity, innovative agricultural production, new business creation, and growth for established businesses. In 2008, the IEE raised more than $44 million in loans and investments for clients to advance their businesses, a significantly larger amount than any other economic development organizations in the region. Committed to the interests of every kind of entrepreneur and business owner, the IEE is building the future by leveraging the power of the University as a bridge to the community, helping to create the business and wealth that supports economic development and vitality.

Contact:

Ann Dugan, director of Pitt’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, 412-648-1544 (office), 412-760-1008 (cell), adugan@katz.pitt.edu

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

World History Center

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Set within Pitt’s Department of History, the World History Center draws on the University’s tradition of international and interdisciplinary studies in its effort to address key issues in the field of history and, more broadly, in the academy, with the goal of meeting today’s need for global historical analysis. The center is committed to research, teaching, and international collaboration about the past, with the intention of affecting future global policies and practices.

In addition to the history department, the center is affiliated with Pitt’s Global Studies Program and UCIS, which encompasses four federally funded National Resource Centers. Patrick Manning, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History at Pitt and director of the center, is a renowned scholar on the economic history of Africa and a specialist in world history. His research has focused on demographic history (the African slave trade), the social and cultural history of francophone Africa, global migration, the African diaspora as a dimension of global history, and an overview of the world history field.

Contact:

Patrick Manning, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History at Pitt, 412-648-7478 (office), 617-435-6540 (cell); pmanning@pitt.edu

Pitt News Representative Patricia Lomando White, 412-624-9101 (office); 412-215-9932 (cell); laer@pitt.edu