France
Population: 64,057,792, including overseas regions
Government: republic; Chief of State: President Nicolas Sarkozy (since May 16, 2007); Head of Government: Prime Minister Francois Fillon (since May 17, 2007)
Pitt Experts:
- Vivian Curran—Comparative law, French and German legal culture, law and globalization
- John T.S. Keeler—EU politics, comparative public policy, transatlantic relations, U.S. foreign policy
- Colin MacCabe—Literature and media in the 20th Century, the history of English since 1500, psychoanalysis, James Joyce, and linguistics
- Alberta M. Sbragia—European Union politics and policy (such as the Euro transatlantic relations), climate change negotiations, comparative politics, Europe, comparative federalism and religion
- Bruce L. Venarde—Medieval European history, Western civilization, religion, gender
Department of English
Colin MacCabe
Distinguished Professor of English and Film,
Department of English and Film Studies Program
office: 412-624-6529
maccabe@pitt.edu
Faculty bio
For assistance in reaching this Pitt faculty member, contact Patricia Lomando White
office: 412-624-9101
cell: 412-215-9932
laer@pitt.edu
Areas of expertise
Literature and media in the 20th Century, the history of English since 1500, psychoanalysis, James Joyce, and linguistics
MacCabe is a Distinguished Professor of English and Film at Pitt, where he has taught since 1985. He also teaches English and the humanities in Birkbeck University of London, where he serves as associate director of the London Consortium, which he helped to found in 1995.
MacCabe is the author and producer, respectively, of Godard: Portrait of the Artist at 70 (2003) and Derek (2008). In 2007, he was awarded a grant of $1,060,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom to fund his research project, “Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire.” With the award, MacCabe is cataloguing a collection of more than 7,000 British films from pre-1900 productions to television-era programming. He is the author of James Joyce and the Revolution of the Word; Godard: Images, Sounds, Politics; Tracking the Signifier, and several other books, and he edits the journal Critical Quarterly. He has produced several films, including Caravaggio, Distant Voices/Still Lives, The Long Day Closes, and the 16-part series Century of Cinema.
European union center of excellence
Alberta M. Sbragia
Mark A. Nordenberg University Chair,
Jean Monnet Chair ad personam,
director of the European Union Center of Excellence/European Studies Center, and
professor of political science,
Department of Political Science,
School of Arts and Sciences
office: 412-648-7405
cell: 412-478-4088
sbragia@pitt.edu
Faculty Bio
For assistance in reaching this faculty member, contact
Amanda Leff
office: 412-624-4238
cell:
412-337-3350
aleff@pitt.edu
Areas of Expertise
European Union politics and policy (such as the Euro transatlantic relations), climate change negotiations, comparative politics, Europe, comparative federalism and religion
Background
Sbragia's career accomplishments include being designated as a Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, recognition given by the European Union to elite American academicians whose careers exemplify excellence in teaching and research related to the European Union. She is internationally renowned for her European scholarship.
From 1993 to 1995, Sbragia chaired the European Community Studies Association, the foremost national association for experts in the field. Because of her leadership, the association is now headquartered at Pitt.
She is the author of four books: Comparative Regionalism in an Age of Globalization; Debt Wish: Entrepreneurial Cities, U.S. Federalism, and Economic Development (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996); Euro-Politics: Politics and Policymaking in the "New" European Community (Edited book, Brookings Institution, 1992), largely credited with initiating a new wave of scholarly work in the United States on the topic of European integration; and The Municipal Money Chase: The Politics of Local Government Finance (Edited book, Westview Press, 1983). In addition, she has authored more than 50 articles and presented nearly 200 papers and speeches around the world.
Department of History
Bruce L. Venarde
Professor of History
Department of History
Director of Undergraduate Studies
office: 412-648-7451
bvenarde@pitt.edu
Faculty bio
For assistance in reaching this Pitt faculty member, contact Patricia Lomando White
office: 412-624-9101
cell: 412-215-9932
laer@pitt.edu
Areas of expertise
Medieval European history, Western civilization, religion, gender
school of law
Vivian Curran
Professor, School of Law
office: 412-648-1393
home: 724-934-0309
vcurran@pitt.edu
Faculty Bio
For assistance in reaching this faculty member, contact
Patricia Lomando White
office: 412-624-9101
cell: 412-215-9932
laer@pitt.edu
Areas of Expertise
Comparative law, French and German legal culture, law and globalization
Background
Vivian Curran is a native speaker of French who earned a PhD in French literature and Romance philology before studying law. She is an elected member of both the International Academy of Comparative Law and the American Law Institute. She is the creator of Pitt law school's innovative Languages for Lawyers program, in which students study foreign languages in a legal context, and of English for Lawyers, in which foreign lawyers study English in a legal context.
Curran is the author and editor of two books, Learning French Through the Law (Columbia University, Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law & Juris Publishing, Inc., 1996) and Comparative Law: An Introduction (Carolina Academic Press, 2002). She also translated from German to English Bernhard Grossfeld’s Core Questions of Comparative Law (Carolina Academic Press, 2005). Curran is a past secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law and book review editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law.
In 2007, she was awarded the Grand Decoration of Merit in Gold for Services Rendered to the Republic of Austria for her work as the United States appointee to the Austrian General Settlement Fund Committee for Nazi-era property compensation.
graduate school of public and international affairs
John T.S. Keeler
Professor and dean, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
office: 412-648-7600
keeler@pitt.edu
Faculty Bio
For assistance in reaching this faculty member, contact
Amanda Leff
office: 412-624-4238
cell: 412-337-3350
aleff@pitt.edu
Areas of Expertise
EU politics, comparative public policy, transatlantic relations, U.S. foreign policy
Background
A
widely recognized scholar of European politics, John T.S. Keeler is dean of Pitt’s Graduate School for Public and International Affairs. He previously served as chair of the European Union Studies Association and was a professor of political science at the Center for West European Studies and European Union Center of Excellence, University of Washington at Seattle.
Keeler has published broadly in such notable publications as Defending Europe: NATO and the Quest for European Autonomy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); Chirac's Challenge: Liberalization, Europeanization and Malaise in France (St. Martin's Press and Macmillan, 1996); Agricultural Policy (2 volumes, Cheltenham and Edward Elgar, 2000); The Politics of Neocorporatism in France: Farmers, the State and Agricultural Policy-making in the Fifth Republic (Oxford University Press, 1987); and Réformer: Les Conditions du Changement Politique (Presses Universitaires de France, 1994). He has published articles in numerous professional journals, including French Politics and Society, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and Journal of Common Market Studies, West European Politics.
Keeler currently is writing a book that examines terrorism and transatlantic relations.