A globally oriented university, Pitt partners with leading institutions around the world and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as one of the top 5 universities in the US in global and regional studies as well as foreign language education. Designated a National Resource Center for European Studies by the U.S. Department of Education and a Jean Monnet Center of Excellence by the European Commission, Pitt’s European Studies Center (ESC) advances high-quality research and teaching on Western Europe, the European Union and its neighborhood.
The Center is coordinating extensively with Pitt’s Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES), also a U.S. Department of Education-recognized National Resource Center that has advanced expertise and public education on Eastern Europe and Eurasia thanks to funding from prestigious foundations like the Carnegie Corporation of New York and federal agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities. Housed at Pitt’s University Center for International Studies with other award-winning global and regional studies centers, ESC and REEES address Europe from a critical perspective to cultural foreign policy with a special focus on Film and Media studies.
Team members
Randall Halle
Randall Halle is the ValEUs Project Lead at the University of Pittsburgh where he directs the European Studies Center and is Klaus W. Jonas Professor of German Film and Cultural Studies. Professor Halle's research and teaching focuses on European film, EU cultural and media policy, and the role of Europe in the world. Halle’s fluency in six languages facilitates deep knowledge of regional European policy and politics. He is the author of four monographs and several edited volumes and articles, which are based on research supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, DAAD, and Fulbright. He also co-founded the European Culture Research Network, is on the Executive Committee of the Council for European Studies, is Editor in Chief of the journal EuropeNow, and serves on the Executive Committee of the European Union Studies Association.
Mohammed Bamyeh
Having lived in 18 cities across 4 continents, in two civil wars, two revolutions, and witnessed refugee conditions, Professor Bamyeh has developed a living rather than theoretical appreciation for a global sociology, as well as for the complex dynamics of conflict and social transformation. He is interested in subaltern perspectives, and is averse to prepackaged models, especially those based exclusively on U.S. or European case studies, which while important constitute a small part of our global experience. His work generally employs comparative angles, even where it involves specific case studies.
Nancy Condee
Nancy Condee is Director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Professor Condee is an expert in Russian and East European cultural politics, with a specialization in contemporary cinema. Her publications include Imperial Trace: Recent Russian Cinema (Oxford, 2009)—awarded the 2011 MLA Scaglione Prize and the 2010 Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies—as well as edited volumes such as Cinemasaurus: Recent Russian Film in Its Contemporary Context (Academic Studies Press, 2020) and articles in academic and popular press from The Washington Post to the PMLA - Proceedings of the Modern Language Association. She has worked as a consultant for the Carnegie Corporation, Edinburgh Film Festival, San Francisco Film Festival, Library of Congress, and Public Broadcasting Service on several Frontline television documentaries. Her previous appointments include Chair of the Board, National Council for East European and Eurasian Research (NCEEER) and inaugural Director, Global Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
Zsuzsánna Magdó
Dr. Zsuzsánna Magdó coordinates ValEUs at Pitt and is the Associate Director at the University's Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies where she manages regional studies programs to support interdisciplinary scholarship and public education on the world regions of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Her research explores the history of religion and modernity with a particular focus on Eastern Europe. She has previously served as Chair of the Committee for Advocating Diversity and Inclusion at the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and on the selection committee for the Pittsburgh Network of Threatened Scholars.
Erica Edwards
Dr. Erica Edwards is the Associate Director of the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the ESC, she held faculty and administrative positions at North Carolina State University, Miami University Ohio, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. She obtained her Masters in European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, where she was a Fulbright scholar, before going on to obtain her PhD in political science for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A native of Houston, she has lived in five different US states and five European countries. Her teaching and research interests are in the fields of comparative politics, political parties and party systems, governance and politics of the European Union, and public opinion.