Pitt Director of International Studies Elected President of the Association of International Education Administrators

PITTSBURGH-University of Pittsburgh Professor William I. Brustein, director of Pitt's University Center for International Studies (UCIS), has been selected as president-elect of the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA). Brustein, a professor of sociology, political science, and history in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences, will begin his term as president-elect in February 2006 and become president in February 2007.

Earl Kellogg, professor emeritus and associate provost emeritus for international affairs at the University of Illinois and the most recent past-president of AIEA, called Brustein a "committed scholar" who has garnered respect from his peers in AIEA, an organization of higher education leaders who are involved in furthering international education at universities across the country.

"William was elected by this elite group of administrators because people respect his experience and intellect. He is a scholar and a leader who is committed not only to the administration side, but also to students," said Kellogg, noting the importance of international studies in a liberal arts education. Brustein "has looked at how all students can become more involved in their world, not just the ones who know they want to end up in the field."

Brustein's scholarly research is in political and historical sociology with a focus on European political regionalism, European political extremism, and the rise of fascism, Nazism, and anti-Semitism. He is the author of Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust (Cambridge University Press, 2003), The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925-1933 (Yale University Press, 1996), and Social Origins of French Political Regionalism: France, 1849 to 1981 (University of California Press, 1988).

Under Brustein's leadership, UCIS has maintained its commitment to integrating international knowledge into the University setting through various initiatives, including the Global Academic Partnership (GAP), the Research Abroad Program (RAP), and the Bachelor of Philosophy in International and Area Studies degree, offered jointly with the University Honors College. He also oversees the seventeen UCIS component and affiliate programs, including four federally funded National Resource Centers, a federally funded Center for International Business Education and Research, and a European Union Center for Excellence.

Brustein earned the master's degree in international studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the master's and Ph.D. degrees in sociology at the University of Washington.

Before coming to Pitt, Brustein was a McKnight Distinguished University Professor at the University of Minnesota, where he also served as chair of the Department of Sociology and a founding director of the Center for European Studies.

AIEA is an organization dedicated to providing an effective voice on international education issues, promoting and improving international education programming and administration within institutions of higher education, establishing and maintaining a professional network among international education institutional leaders, and cooperating in appropriate ways with other national and international groups having similar interests.

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