Beginning this semester, Pitt students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in two new African languages, with one more on the way in the spring. At the beginning of the fall semester, Pitt’s Center for African Studies secured grant funding to finance instruction in two new African languages with the help of Pitt’s Global Studies.
By Abdelrahman ElGendy Oct. 6, 2023 Abdelrahman ElGendy, a former six-year political prisoner in Egypt, is an Egyptian writer and journalist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a Dietrich fellow at the University of Pittsburgh's Nonfiction Writing MFA, a Heinz fellow at Pitt's Global Studies Center, a 2021 Logan Nonfiction…
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Do Nguyen Mai Khoi gave her new show the ironic title “Bad Activist.” But the Vietnamese celebrity, who’s currently living in self-imposed exile in Pittsburgh, also might have called it “Bad Pop Star.”
Mai performs in Bad Activist.
These days, she’s working on her music, studying English, and living with her husband in a house on the North Side courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh’s Scholars at Risk program. But just a few years ago, Mai Khoi, 37, was a star in Vietnam. In 2010, her patriotic tune “Vietnam” won a state-run broadcaster’s big contest, and she went on to record ballads, pop-country numbers, and dance tunes, sing and dance in splashy videos, and give live concerts. She even toured internationally.