Global Academic Partnership (GAP) grants have been awarded to fund projects on globalization in Latin America, sustainable community development, and the role of children in armed conflict. The grants are intended to strengthen interdisciplinary research and curriculum development regarding global themes and to enhance international scholarly ties.

GAP, first launched in fall 2001, is an initiative of the Global Studies Program in Pitt’s University Center for International Studies (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 (GSPIA).

This year’s awards include two grants of $20,000 each, sponsored by the Office of the Provost and UCIS, and one grant of $25,000 on issues related to “States at Risk,” sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

One grant was jointly awarded to Elizabeth Monasterios, associate professor of Latin American literatures in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences (A&S); Aníbal Perez-Liñan, assistant professor of political science in A&S; and foreign partners from the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés. The project, called “Globalization and Diversity/Inequality in Latin America: Challenges, Opportunities, Dangers,” will support an international conference to be held in March 2007 on issues facing the neocolonial and neoliberal structural modes of society-building. At the conference, panels will discuss four key issues in the Latin American and Caribbean regions: global communications and new technologies, increasing/decreasing inequality, leadership and access to power, and social movements in national and transnational contexts.

A second grant was jointly awarded to Kathleen DeWalt, professor of anthropology in A&S and professor in Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health; Larry Shuman, professor and associate dean for academic affairs in Pitt’s School of Engineering; Eric Beckman, Bayer Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Pitt and codirector of the University’s Mascaro Sustainability Initiative; and foreign partners from the University of Brazil and the University of Puerto Rico. The project, titled “Research in Sustainable Community Development,” will support an international workshop to generate a research agenda in the areas of green construction and water that is attentive to cross-cultural and ethical issues. The project also will provide training for Pitt's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Sustainable Engineering Fellows to conduct research in Brazil.

The Carnegie Corporation-sponsored grant was jointly awarded to Simon Reich, professor of public and international affairs and director of the Ford Institute for Human Security; Barry Ames, professor of political science in A&S; Maureen McClure, associate professor of administration and policy studies in Pitt’s School of Education; Charli Caprenter, assistant professor of international affairs in GSPIA; and foreign partners from the Peace Research Institution of Oslo and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. The project, called “Building Knowledge About Children in Armed Conflict,” will support one in a series of international workshops to be held in September on the issue of children in armed conflict. The workshop will examine different explanations of the phenomena of child soldiering and consider policy options aimed at limiting their military recruitment.