Pitt's Global Studies Program Announces 2009-10 Global Academic Partnership Grants

PITTSBURGH-Three $20,000 Global Academic Partnership (GAP) grants have been awarded to fund three international conferences/workshops. The grants are intended to strengthen interdisciplinary research and curriculum development on critical global issues while enhancing international scholarly ties and raising the international profile of the University of Pittsburgh. The titles and a brief synopsis of the grants follow.

"Youth, Labor, and Neoliberal Governmentality in East Asia"

Awarded to Gabriella Lukacs (assistant professor of anthropology in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences' Department of Anthropology), Hiroshi Nara (associate professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures in Arts and Sciences' Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures), Muge Kokten Finkel (adjunct professor of politics in Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs), and foreign partners from Sophia and Temple universities in Japan.

The grant will support a spring 2010 international symposium bringing together prominent junior and senior scholars from various disciplines, including anthropology, urban studies, sociology, East Asian studies, women's studies, as well as business and management. The participants of the symposium will investigate two salient trends in East Asia-youth unemployment and underemployment. The symposium is sponsored by Pitt's Office of the Provost, Global Studies Program, and University Center for International Studies (UCIS).

"Improving Maternal and Child Health Outcomes in Zambia"

Awarded to Jeannette South-Paul (professor of medicine and chair of Pitt's School of Medicine's Department of Family Medicine), Steven M. Albert (professor of public health in Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health's Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences), and foreign partners from the University of Zambia and Churches Health Association of Zambia.

The grant will support a workshop-to be held at Pitt in July 2009-that will seek to identify clinical research needs, perspectives, and priorities for academic and community leaders in Zambia; prepare a five-year maternal-child health collaborative clinical research agenda; and define potential resources available in both countries. The conference is sponsored by Pitt's Center for Global Health and the Global Studies Program.

"The State of Globalization in the Steel Industry: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead" Awarded to Ravi Madhavan (associate professor of business in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business); Frank Giarratani (professor of economics in Pitt's Center for Industry Studies in the Department of Economics); and foreign partners from Tohoku University, Japan, and POSCO Research Institute, South Korea.

The grant will support a one-day workshop to be held in the early fall 2010. This workshop will bring together an international group of researchers from the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America to present and discuss position papers as well as articulate plans for focused studies dealing with the current and future challenges of globalization in the steel industry. The workshop is sponsored by Pitt's International Business Center within the Katz School and the Global Studies Program.

GAP, first launched in the fall of 2001, is an initiative of Pitt's Global Studies Program within UCIS and the Office of the Provost. The Global Studies Program is jointly sponsored by UCIS and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

The GAP grants support international research conferences and workshops that result in publications and curricular enhancement. Projects must be related to one of the six global issues targeted by Pitt's Global Studies Program: sustainable development; global economy and global governance; changing identities in a global world; conflict and conflict resolution; communication, technology, and society; and global health.

For more information about the Global Studies Program, visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/global or e-mail global@pitt.edu.

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