PS

This course foregrounds theoretical perspectives on meaning-making about “selves”—that is, how do “selves” acquire and/or form identities? In the context of contemporary Romanian society, students will engage with commonly circulating, socially salient identity framings (related to nationality, religion, ethnicity/race, class, sex/gender, sexual orientation, etc.) and consider how they take shape and evolve through social interaction. We will examine social processes including self/other recognition, use metaphor, traumatization and healing, memory-making, institutionalization of narratives, and migration. 

Since the nineteenth century, Eastern Europe has undergone one of the most breathtaking political and socioeconomic transformations. Imperial ambitions, contentious politics of fin de siècle European nationalisms, the destructiveness of two world wars, experiments with socialism, political revolutions, transitions to capitalist democracy, and European integration (re)shaped the lives of hundreds of millions of people across twenty countries. Moreover, the region continues influencing global politics, as a site of the major geopolitical contestation between the “West” and its challengers. Contextualized in regional history since 1848, and through immersive case study in contemporary Romania, this course explores a wide array of social, political, economic, and cultural processes across local, national, regional, and global levels of analysis.

Syllabus and course description coming soon!

Syllabus and course description coming soon!

In this course you will learn the policy process, particularly as it relates to environmental policy-making. Students will understand and unpack the different writing items that are utilized in that policy process. Learning objectives include gaining familiarity with a variety of environmental policy issues that are important in Wyoming and Western Pennsylvania. You will also develop a foundational understanding of the relationship between space, land, the environment on our political attitudes. This class focuses on building one single cohesive portfolio of policy writing by the end of the course. The pieces in this portfolio will undergo a revision process, with feedback from both instructor and other class participants.
 

This 3-credit course will introduce students to issues facing Ireland and specifically Dublin from multiple disciplines. The focus will be on the politics and public policy, but will also include, social, economic, and cultural contexts. Student will be in project teams and be conducting experiments/research through surveys, interviews and other data collection methods.  Topics that will be explored may include politics, healthcare/health policy, education, gender, and more. Students will learn through lectures, observations and personal communication with community.

This course explores the sources and development of conflict and subsequent peace-building in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The focus is on the development of the Irish state, the rise of conflict during the Troubles in Northern Ireland between the 1960s and 1990s, and finally the establishment of a peace process and system of governance from the 1990s to present. The course includes a one week study abroad component in Ireland and Northern Ireland during Spring Break.

You will earn one credit for successful completion of the program and will be required to take part in pre-departure orientations, lectures, and coursework on the Greensburg campus. 

This course provides undergraduate students interested in the fields of Environmental Studies, Business, Law, Engineering, Public Policy and other areas with a first-hand experience of the global impact of contemporary developments in the water policy sector. Competing Perspectives on Global Water Policy will introduce students to the role of governmental and non-governmental organizations managing water equity, enabling them to study interconnections between policy, law, economics, and culture related to the environment. Students will develop a portfolio of varied writing samples to use in applications for graduate programs and careers in policy while also creating their network of experts and organizations influential to the shaping of water and environmental policy in the U.S., Central Asia, and globally. This course is open to undergraduate and non-PITT students. Coursework may count towards certificates provided by the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Global Studies Center, and the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation.

This course provides professional school students in the fields of Business, Law, Engineering,Public Policy and other areas with a first-hand experience of the global impact of contemporary developments in the natural gas and other energy sectors. Participants will first witness the effect that Marcellus Shale has had in Western PA and then see how these developments affect US foreign policy and trade practices. After this, students will become familiar with a very different side of the global natural gas and energy equation by travelling to Europe, where they will explore the role that transit states play in global energy markets and efforts by these players to use their territory and energy alternatives to bargain with larger states at both ends of energy pipelines. The course ends in Kyiv for a different view of global and regional gas and energy markets. This course is open to undergraduate and non-PITT students. Coursework may count towards Russian and East European Studies certificate.
 
 

This course offers a general survey of the History of Europe in the twentieth century, focusing on major political and economic processes and events. It also considers the correlated national and international environments. It will shed light on the way in which European development influenced the national and international contexts and, inversely, document how national and international factors conditioned European dynamics. The analysis highlights the dynamics of European history from a world-scale perspective. The beginning of the twentieth century marked the crisis of empires and colonial powers. A second significant shift occurred after the Second World War with the emergence of a bi-polar world order, and the subsequent division of power between the USA and USSR. The third was registered in 1989-91, when, with the fall of the Soviet bloc, conditions for an American hegemony were eventually created (a mono-polar order was established). Attempts are now under way to open avenues to a functional global order.