Christina L. Allaback

“A Field Guide to Grassroots Science Fiction in the United States” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, March 2024

“Theatre of the Obsessed: How I taught Brecht and Boal to Trekkies,” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, March 2024

Panelist, Trek Wars Seven, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, May 2024

“Have You Seen His Striped Stocking? Identity Construction and Performance of Phish Fans” Phish Studies Conference, Oregon State University, May 2024

Moderator, “I’m Leaving You a Message” – Literary Analysis; conducted theatrical improvisation workshop; hosted and managed sound for the evening theatrical performance, Phish Studies Conference, Oregon State University, May 2024

Elizabeth Contreras:

“Digital Cultural Mapping and Journaling– Parra, Mistral and Khalo,” with Spanish major, Juliet Montes Durán, Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association (PSMLA), Seven Springs, Pennsylvania October 2023

“La diversidad cultural: recursos para el salón de clase (Cultural Diversity: Resources for the Language Class),” with Spanish majors Sage Blair and Juliet Montes Durán, American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP), Seton Hill University, March 2024

Anne Czerwinski:

““It’s not red or blue, it’s green”: How Right-Wing News Media Benefits From the Weaponization of Disinformation,” Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 2023

Jessica Ghilani:

“Advertising Military Innovation: Army Recruiting at the Museum,” Northeast Popular and American Culture Association Annual Conference, Virtual, October 2023

“TikTok Announces it will Label AI-Generated Content,” KNX News 97.1 FM, pre-recorded interview that generated two separate segments, and was broadcast multiple times during longform 30 minute newscasts on May 9, 2024

“Social Media Platforms and Trustworthiness amid AI-Generated Content,” KNX News 97.1 FM, pre-recorded interview that generated two separate segments, and was broadcast multiple times during longform 30 minute newscasts on May 9, 2024

“American Fascination and Conspiracism about the British Royal Family,” television broadcast segment on CBS Pittsburgh KDKA program, Talk Pittsburgh, April 4, 2024

“Supreme Court Hearing Two Cases on Social Media and Government Censorship,” podcast and radio segment providing expert social media commentary about the line between minimizing harmful disinformation and government overreach for KNX News On Demand with Charles Feldman on KN X News 97.1 FM on March 18, 2024

“Can Social Media Companies Possibly Control All Anti-Semitic and Other Hate Posts?” podcast and radio segment providing expert social media commentary about the efficacy of numerous safeguards big platform companies claim to have in place to protect users for KNX News On Demand with Charles Feldman on KN X News 97.1 FM on November 17, 2023

“The Wall Street Journal Says Instagram is Promoting Pedophilia,” radio segment providing expert social media commentary about algorithms and suggested content for KNX Afternoon News with Charles Feldman on KNX News 97.1 FM on June 7th, 2023

Sayre Greenfield:

Joint plenary address, with Dr. Linda Troost, Center for English Translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies, University of Porto, Portugal, October 2023

"The Many Colors of Austen," with Linda Troost. Jane Austen Society of North America, Denver, Colorado, November 2023

Lori Jakiela:

Readings and talk, Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia, St. Francis University, Loretto, Pennsylvania, March 2023

Panel member and featured writer Pittsburgh Festival of the Book, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 2023

Book tour & readings for "They Write Your Name on a Grain of Rice: On Cancer, Love, and Living Even So" (2023), various locations in Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania

Panel member celebrating the work of poet Gerald Locklin, The Associated Writing Programs Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, Jan 2024

Podcast: The Anna Jinja Show (US), July 2024

Talk given to the Top 20 students at Penn Trafford High School, Harrison City, Pennsylvania

Kelli Maloy:

“Abortion Travel in Irish Literature,”  Northeast Popular Culture Association, Virtual, October 2023

Bryan McCarthy:

 Podcast: America magazine’s Jesuitical "A Religious Trip: Finding God on Psychedelic Drugs," June 2023

“Heidegger on Fashion as Art”, West Virginia Philosophical Conference on Heidegger and Art

Co-presented with theologian Natalie Wigg-Stevenson on psychedelic medicine and mental health at Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society

Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell:

"How Technology Impacts Gender Differently: Exploring Behavior and Communication with ‘Fake News’ During Elections," co-presented with Mark Piwinsky, Eastern Communication Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 2023

"Information Warfare Fostering Political Polarization: Facebook Addiction, News Credibility, and Concern of Foreign Interference,"co-presented with Mark Piwinsky, Pennsylvania Communication Association, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, September 2023

"Vibe check: How can you reach over 10,000 readers with the ubiquitous term paper assignment. Using Artificial Intelligence tools for experiential learning to assist student research." co-presented with M.E. Yancosek Gamble, Fairmont State University Artificial Intelligence Conference, Fairmont, West Virginia, February 2024

Dave Newman:

Panel member, Greater Pittsburgh Festival for Books, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 2023

Lecture and workshop, Wildcat Lit Festival, Franklin, Pennsylvania, July 2023

Panel member celebrating the work of poet Gerald Locklin, The Associated Writing Programs Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, Jan 2024

"Your Job is Your Setting," workshop. Get Lit Youngstown, Youngstown, Ohio, April 2024

Silvina Orsatti: 

“Gamifying communicative activities with digital games and simulations,” American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP), Universidad de Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain, June 2023

“¡Actúe ahora! - Viva con más sostenibilidad por medio de A World, la Plataforma oficial de las Naciones Unidas,” American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP Western PA chapter), Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, February 2024

William Pamerleau:

“The Narrative Self and the Meaning of Life,” International Conference on Philosophy and the Meaning in Life, Tohoku University in Japan, Virtual, June 2023

“The Joy of Existentialism,” retirement conference for William L. McBride, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, September 2023

Natalie E. Taylor:

""Oh Shit, I Have to Sound a Certain Way Because I Can Get Deported’: Centering and Reckoning with the Embodied Experience of Silence in the Writing Classroom," The Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2023

Panel chair, The Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2023

Invited talk to the First-Year Composition Program, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), El Paso, Texas, Virtual, 2023

Stacey Triplette:

“The figure of the Amazon in Cervantes’s Las dos doncellas,” Global Cervantes: Joint Conference of the Cervantes Society of America and the Asociación de Cervantistas, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, June 2023

“Spanish Dialectology and Listening Comprehension,” workshop, Pennsylvania State Modern Languages Association (PSMLA) Conference, Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, November 2023

“On the Amazon in Beatriz Bernal’s Cristalián de España,” Homenaje al Profesor Ignacio Navarrete (Retirement conference for Ignacio Navarrete), University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, April 2024

Christina L. Allaback:

Served on the Phish Studies Executive Committee, May 2024

Organized and promoted the second Phish Studies Conference held at Oregon State University, May 2024

Chris Bartley:

Director of Choral Activities for the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra; lead Home for the Holidays concert

Director of the Westmoreland Symphony Chorus, prepared choir to sing the Verdi Requiem, April 2024

Artistic Director for Blair Concert Chorale; lead Operas, Operettas, and other Silly Sh*t,October 2023; La Fiesta de la Posada, December 2023; Holiday Concert, and Carmina Mat(t)ers, April 2024

Baritone for Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (MCP) performances of Brahms’ Requiem and Holiday Pops

Sheila Confer:

Chair, Westmoreland Reads planning committee

Member, Blackburn Center Social Transformation Committee

Elizabeth Contreras:

Coordinator, La Once event at the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) on the Pitt Oakland campus

Anne Czerwinski:

Reviewer for the Rhetoric and Public Address Division of Eastern Communication Association (ECA) and the Kenneth Burke Society of National Communication Association (NCA)

Sean DiLeonardi:

Member of the RESI-SFI Generative AI Learning Cohort, sponsored by the Sara Fine Institute on the Pittsburgh campus

Member of the University of Pittsburgh interdisciplinary working group, “Socio-Technical Ecosystems: A Network of Study and Practice.” 

Reviewer for the Pitt Momentum Microgrant 2024-25 cycle

Planning committee for the 2024 meeting of Keystone DH Conference

Jessica Ghilani:

Affiliated Faculty of the Pitt Carnegie Mellon University Collaboratory Against Hate

Research Affiliate for Pitt Cyber Institute’s Disinformation Lab

Disinformation Lab Speaker Series: Four lectures at branches of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Invited reviewer for Pitt Oakland’s Momentum Funds, Fall 2023

Reviewer for Pitt University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) Steven D. Manners Faculty Development Awards

Invited grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Humanities

Lori Jakiela:

Featured Author and Workshop Leader, The Wildcat Literary Festival, Franklin, Pennsylvania, July 2023

Visiting Author and Workshop instructor, “Fragmented Memoir,” Winter Wheat Literary Festival, Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, Ohio, November 2023

Served as a judge in nonfiction for Stanford University’s prestigious Saroyan Prize for International Literature

Kelli Maloy:

Volunteer, Westmoreland County Election Bureau

Volunteer, 412 Food Rescue

Bryan McCarthy:

Reviewer for Journal of Medicine and Philosophy and Christian Bioethics

Consulted, and served as an expert on the Discord service, for DoubleBlind

Supports  the work of Ligare, Christian Psychedelic Society

Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell:

Board member of the Entrepreneurship Leadership Council; Campus Liaison and Coordinator for The Washington Center in Washington, D.C.

Selected to the 2024 Engaged Scholarship Project Development Cohort

2024 Global Citizens Fellowship Cohort

Judge for the Eastern Communication Association’s political communication and mass media divisions

Advisory Board member for Lexington Books’ series on “Contemporary Perspectives on Social Inequalities in the United States”

Coordinator and Secretary for the Eastern Communication Association's Political Communication Division, overseeing event organization and administration

Judge for the International Journal of Communication's Political Communication division

Dave Newman:

Fiction Editor for the Chiron Review

Silvina Orsatti:

Member, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)

Member, Pennsylvania Association of Educational Communications and Technology (PAECT)

Organized and directed music for Spanish masses held at the Church of the Assumption parish in Jeannette, PA since April 2022

Co-organized Hispanic Heritage Day and represented Argentina at the event, 2023

Invited reviewer of a textbook proposal, sample unit, and sample unit instructor guide for Learning Spanish through Sustainability Case Studies for Routledge’s Language Learning series

Served as a Co-Chair of the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association (PSMLA) annual conference held at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, November 2023

William Pamerleau:

Organizer for the Socrates Café

Natalie E. Taylor:

Joined a collaborative project called “Aca(diy)mia: Making Zines, Remaking Worlds” at the Watson Professional Conference, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, March 2024

Assistant Editor for the Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition

Christina L. Allaback:

Secured a $5,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Cultural Trust to support the production of the spring 2024 term musical, Fun Home

Sean DiLeonardi:

Awarded a Pitt Momentum Microgrant for The International Bestsellers Data Project

Lori Jakiela:

Awarded national Course Hero Grant ($2000) to develop digital storytelling projects focused on place

"Except for the Cancer, I’m Fine” was shortlisted for the 2024 Lascaux Prize in Creative Nonfiction

Stage adaptation memoir, "The Bridge to Take When Things Get Serious," debuts at The Sandler Center in Boca Raton, Florida, January 2024

Included in the The Working Bibliography of Northern Appalachian Literature (2024) (ed. by Fisanick/Dressick, Writers Association of Northern Appalachia)

Short-Listed and Long-Listed for the Fish Poetry Prize/Ireland, May 2024

Finalist, Established Artist, for the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award from the Pittsburgh Foundation

Gannon University's Distinguished Author for 2024

Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell:

Formed and Named Director of the Office of Community Outreach

Principal Investigator, Richard King Mellon Foundation ($250,000), Economic Mobility and Educational Attainment, (2023 - current)

Oversaw two grant submissions by Office of Community Outreach engagement manager and coordinator

Co-Principal Investigator for Undergraduate Research Funding $6,000 (PURCS 2024)