pitt med school secondary essays

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Secondary Essay Prompts

These are the secondary application essay prompts for University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. To put your best foot forward and maximize your chance of an interview invitation, visit our secondary application editing page .

About University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Secondary Deadline :  Secondary Fee :  FAP Waiver :  CASPer Required :  Screens Applications :  Accepts Application Updates : 

The mission of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is to improve the health and well-being of individuals and populations through cutting-edge biomedical research, innovative educational programs in medicine and biomedical science, and leadership in academic medicine. We strive to implement this mission with the highest professional and ethical standards, in a culture of diversity and inclusiveness, and in an environment that enables all students, faculty, and staff to develop to their fullest potential.

MD Program Prompts have a  250-word limit .

1. Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it.

2. UPSOM is a culturally diverse and talented community. How would you enrich/enliven the UPSOM community? The essay should discuss material that is not included in the rest of your application

3. Is there anything additional that you would like to address that is not already reflected in your application?

1. Choose current graduate program of interest, choose 3 faculty from a given list, provide up to 2 additional faculty you could see yourself working with in graduate school, and then:

2. Briefly describe what appeals to you about the faculty member(s) in your selection, and how the selected graduate program and our MSTP match your interests.

1. Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it. (250 words)

2. UPSOM is a culturally diverse and talented community. How would you enrich/enliven the UPSOM community? The essay should discuss material that is not included in the rest of your application. (250 words)

The secondary application essay prompts from this medical school application cycle are the same as above.

Disclaimer: The information on this page was shared by students and/or can be found on the medical school’s website. Med School Insiders does not guarantee the accuracy of the information on this page.

We're here to help

The secondary application is just as important as the primary. We'll make sure you get it right.

Join the Insider Newsletter

Receive regular exclusive MSI content, news, and updates! No spam. One-click unsubscribe.

Customer Note Premed Preclinical Med Student Clinical Med Student

You have Successfully Subscribed!

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Secondary Questions

Here are the secondary prompts for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

1. The Three Rivers Curriculum features collaborative team based learning. Therefore, we value your perspective and experience working within teams. Describe a time you worked with others in a collaborative process, challenges encountered and how you overcame these challenges. Discuss any personal growth achieved through the experience.  (250 words or less.)

2. Describe a difficult situation you faced, how you responded to this situation and how this helped shape the person you’ve become.  (250 words or less.)

3. Respect for others of different backgrounds is integral to the successful practice of medicine, as is an understanding of the social determinants of health. Describe a situation you observed between a patient and the health care system that illustrates the impact of social determinants of health and/or the impact of racism on delivery of care. Describe what you learned from this situation.  (250 words or less.)

4.  Optional Essay:  If you wish, use this space to tell the UPSOM Admissions Committee anything else about yourself.  (250 words or less.)

1. Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it. Include how the experience contributed to the person you are today. (250 words or less.)

2. At UPSOM, diversity and inclusion are measures of distinction, integral to achieving institutional excellence, and essential to the development of future physicians who become leaders in medicine. Describe how you have demonstrated a commitment to diversity and inclusion in the past, and how you hope to grow that commitment in medical school. (250 words or less.)

3. Tell the Admissions Committee why you are applying to Pitt Med and why you think this school would be a good fit for you? (250 words or less.)

2021-2022  

• Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it. (Limit your response to 250 words or less .)
• UPSOM is committed to building a diverse and talented community that will train physicians in delivering culturally competent, person-centered care, and promoting a supportive, collaborative learning environment. To achieve this, we want our fellow students to recognize health disparities and advocate for health equity. We are interested in combating all forms of systemic barriers, and would like to hear your thoughts on opposing specifically: systemic racism, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, and misogyny. How will you contribute? (Limit your response to 250 words or less .)
• Please write about anything else you would like to add to your application, or anything you would like to emphasize to the Admissions Committee. Limit your response to 250 words or less .)
• Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it. (Limit your response to 250 words or less.)
• UPSOM is committed to building a diverse and talented community that will train physicians in delivering culturally competent, person-centered care, and promoting a supportive, collaborative learning environment. To achieve this, we want our fellow students to recognize health disparities and advocate for health equity. We are interested in combating all forms of systemic barriers, and would like to hear your thoughts on opposing specifically: systemic racism, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, and misogyny. How will you contribute? (Limit your response to 250 words or less.)
• Please write about anything else you would like to add to your application, or anything you would like to emphasize to the Admissions Committee. Limit your response to 250 words or less.)
• Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it. (Limit your response to 250 words or less.)*
• UPSOM is a culturally diverse and talented community. How would you enrich/enliven the UPSOM community? The essay should discuss material that is not included in the rest of your application. (Limit your response to 250 words or less.)*
• Is there anything additional that you would like to address that is not already reflected in your application? (Optional – Limit your response to 250 words or less.)
• Choose current graduate program of interest, choose 3 faculty from a given list, provide up to 2 additional faculty you could see yourself working with in graduate school, and then:
• Briefly describe what appeals to you about the faculty member(s) in your selection, and how the selected graduate program and our MSTP match your interests.*

2017 – 2018

Same as previous year (see 2015-2016).

2016 – 2017

Same as previous year.

2015 – 2016

• Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it. (250 words)
• UPSOM is a culturally diverse and talented community. How would you enrich/enliven the UPSOM community? The essay should discuss material that is not included in the rest of your application. (250 words)

Related posts:

• Creighton University School of Medicine Secondary Questions
• Emory University School of Medicine Secondary Questions
• Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University Secondary Questions
• Indiana University School of Medicine Secondary Questions

Related Articles

Mayo Clinic College of Medicine Secondary Questions

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Secondary Questions

University of Minnesota Medical School Secondary Questions

Rosalind Franklin University – Chicago Medical School Secondary Questions

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Secondary Essay Prompts

Below are the secondary prompts for University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.  Want to maximize your chances for an interview invite? Work with our expert medical school admission consultants to put your best foot forward through our secondary application editing services .

1. Tell us about a challenging problem you faced and how you resolved it. (Limit your response to 250 words or less.) *

2. UPSOM is a culturally diverse and talented community. How would you enrich/enliven the UPSOM community? The essay should discuss material that is not included in the rest of your application. (Limit your response to 250 words or less.) *

3. Is there anything additional that you would like to address that is not already reflected in your application? (Optional – Limit your response to 250 words or less.)

Choose current graduate program of interest, choose 3 faculty from a given list, provide up to 2 additional faculty you could see yourself working with in graduate school, and then:

4. Briefly describe what appeals to you about the faculty member(s) in your selection, and how the selected graduate program and our MSTP match your interests.*

Win $20,000 for med school tuition from Blueprint MCAT!

LISTEN FOR FREE

RECENT POSTS

Navigating Challenges in the Premed Life on the Way to Hopkins

Inside the Canadian Medical School Admissions Journey

BSMD Bust? Sujay talks about his Pivot and Success witih FlexMed

© Medical School Headquarters - All Rights Reserved. | Affiliate Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Website by MAP

Which program are you applying to?

Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

School-Specific Med Secondary Essay Tips

Explore the tips below to learn how to compose a medical school secondary essay that not only explains why you want to go to med school, but that clearly indicates why your chosen program is perfect for you…and why you are perfect for it as well.

For one-on-one guidance on your med school secondaries, check out our  Medical School Essay Services .

• Baylor College of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Boston University School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Brown Alpert Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Columbia University Medical School (Vagelos College of Physician & Surgeons) 2022-23 Secondary Application Tips
• David Geffen School of Medicine (UCLA) 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Drexel University College of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Duke University Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips

• Harvard Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Johns Hopkins School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Keck School of Medicine of USC 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University 2022-23 Secondary Application Tips
• Loyola Stritch School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Michigan State University College of Human Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• New York Medical College 2022-23 Secondary Application Tips
• New York University (NYU) Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips & Deadlines
• OHSU School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips & Deadlines
• Penn State College of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Stanford University School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips & Deadlines
• Tufts University School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• UC Davis School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• UCSD School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• UCSF School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• UNC Chapel Hill Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• University of Michigan 2022-23 Medical School Secondary Application Essay Tips
• University of Pennsylvania Perelman Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• University of Pittsburgh Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• University of Washington Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• UVA School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Vanderbilt University School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Washington University (St. Louis) Medical School 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Weill Cornell Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Yale School of Medicine 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips
• Zucker SOM at Hofstra/Northwell 2022-23 Secondary Application Essay Tips For one-on-one guidance on your med school secondaries, check out our  Medical School Essay Services .

About Us Press Room Contact Us Podcast Accepted Blog Privacy Policy Website Terms of Use Disclaimer Client Terms of Service

Accepted 1171 S. Robertson Blvd. #140 Los Angeles CA 90035 +1 (310) 815-9553 © 2022 Accepted

Secondary Essay Prompts for Allopathic Schools

Do you want to see secondary essay prompts for all U.S. medical schools?

Select a school below:

*Data collected from MSAR 2016-2017 and institution website. Disclaimer: The information on this page was shared by students and/or can be found on each medical school’s website. MedEdits does not guarantee it’s accuracy or authenticity.

• Website Disclaimer
• Terms and Conditions
• MedEdits Privacy Policy

• Communities Pre-Med Medical Resident Audiology Dental Optometry Pharmacy Physical Therapy Podiatry Psychology Rehab Sci Veterinary
• What's new Trending New posts Latest activity
• Support Account Help Confidential Advising
• Vision, Values and Policies

• PreMed Communities
• Pre-Medical (MD)

2024-2025 MD Medical School-Specific Discussions

• Apr 10, 2024

• May 3, 2023
• Apr 12, 2024

• Apr 13, 2024
• Apr 11, 2024

Pre-Medical (MD) Favorite Threads

• About the Pre-Medical Student Forum
• Essential SDN Wisdom for Pre-Meds (Updated 2019)
• Goro's guide to the app process (2019 ed.)
• Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention (updated for 2021)
• *~*~*~*~Official Pre-Allo Social Thread~*~*~*~*
• Pre-Medical Ask Me Anything (AMA) Threads

Pre-Medical Resources

• Activity Finder
• AMCAS Tracker
• LizzyM App Assistant
• Application Cost Calculator
• Prep your AMCAS Application
• Essay Workshop 101
• MD Applicants Tracker
• Interview Feedback
• Choose a Specialty
• iOS Forums App
• Android Forums App
• Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) Forum
• Personalized MCAT Study Plan
• The 3 Month (100 Day) MCAT Study Schedule Guide: 2022 Edition
• Review2 - Testing Center Reviews
• Casper Test Tips
• CASPer/Situational Judgement Tests Forum

Share this page

• This site uses cookies to help personalize content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies and terms of service . Accept Learn more…

Medical School Secondary Essays: 5 Tips to Nail Them & Essay Prompts

• Cracking Med School Admissions Team

Right about now, you’re probably at that time when you’ve submitted your AMCAS application.  Pat yourself on the back because a big portion of your application is successfully complete! The thing is, it seems like only a few weeks have passed and your are now beginning to receive medical school secondary essays, signaling the next battle in the medical school admissions process: the secondary application.

Topics Covered In This Blog Post:

• What are Medical School Secondary Essays? 
• 5 Tips to Nail Your Medical School Secondary Essay
• Database of Medical School Secondary Essay Prompts
• Frequently Asked Questions from This Year’s Applicants – UPDATED JULY 29, 2019
• Secondary Essay Editing and Secondary Packages

Medical School Secondary Essays: Everything You Need to Know Including Tips, FAQs, & School Prompts

What are Medical School Secondary Essays?

After submitting your primary AMCAS application, many medical schools will ask you to complete a secondary application. Most medical schools, in addition to asking for an additional fee, will also ask you to write an additional essay or multiple additional essays that vary in length and focus. These essays are called medical school secondary essays, but despite their name, they are still of PRIMARY  importance !

Medical school secondary essays can be a very heavy load of work. Again, these essays are still very important and you should try to write them to the best of your ability. There are several things you can do to minimize your pain in writing secondary essays, while giving yourself the best chance of getting granted a medical school interview.

Contact us if you need help editing your medical school secondaries and check out our medical school secondary application packages .

download your secondary Essay Guide

Use this essay guide and workbook to write standout secondaries.

• First Name *
• Best Email *
• Year Applying to Medical School *
• Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

5 Tips to Nail Your Medical School Secondary Essays

1. look up secondary essays from med school applicants in previous years.

Don’t wait to receive the prompts from the schools you applied to — take advantage of the few weeks in between filling out your AMCAS application and receiving secondary essay prompts! Medical schools don’t change their secondary essay prompts every year, so you can Google search previous years’ prompts and get started outlining or writing your secondaries before the essay prompts even come. This is a great way to save time later on, and you’ll need all the time you can get, because secondary essay prompts tend to differ between schools.

Better yet, check out our database of medical school secondary essay prompts down below.

2. Your Medical School Secondary Application Needs to Complement Your AMCAS

Your medical school application should be one cohesive document where everything ties together in some way, and different parts of the application should complement one another. Don’t think of your secondary application as a separate entity — remember the story you told in your primary application and continue telling that story in your secondary application!

Look carefully at your primary application. What have you already covered? What could use further elaboration? Are there puzzle pieces in your application that haven’t been put in place yet? Do the pieces of your application fit together? These are critical questions that you must consider when writing your medical school secondary application. While it’s okay to repeat some things from your primary, you don’t want to write the same thing verbatim. You can also take the opportunity to write full essays about topics that may have been included as one-sentence descriptions in your AMCAS Application. Another approach is to introduce a whole new topic that complements and supports the story you told in your primary. In any case, the most important thing, as always, is to have a cohesive application that connects your past accomplishments with your future goals.

3. Answer Secondary Essay Prompts Carefully — Don’t Copy and Paste

This may seem obvious to most, but it’s worth repeating here. Take time to answer each secondary essay prompt with care and thoughtfulness. A lot of times, applicants are exhausted by the time they start writing medical school secondary essays and try to cut corners in an effort to save time. Copy-pasting and repeating verbatim from information in your primary application is a recipe for disaster. Or worse yet, answering the prompt of another school’s essay while not adequately responding to the school at hand’s prompt, is a very embarrassing situation! While there’s no guarantee that admissions officers will read all your secondary essays — particularly if your primary application blows them away — if they make it to your secondary application, having them be poor quality will make it much more difficult for you to land an interview.

Some tips to make your secondary sound unique for each school:

• Look at specific programs and research mentors you want at each school.
• Discuss how the curriculum at each school is different. With the pre-clinical curriculum, some medical schools are problem-based, others are organ-based. Some med schools offer classes in public health and entrepreneurship. With the clinical curriculum, some medical schools have almost all “electives” during their fourth year while others have stringent clinical rotation requirements. Discuss why these elements are important to YOU.
• Write about unique opportunities and projects you want to be involved with at that specific med school. For example, if you are interested in pursuing global health, research what the global health opportunities are at each med school and how you see yourself taking advantage of them.

4. Have a Fast Turnaround Time with the Secondary Application

The time sensitivity of medical school applications is something people don’t talk about enough, and unfortunately it’s news to many med school applicants when it’s too late. Interview spots dwindle the later in the application cycle you are. A quality secondary application done in a short time window will increase your likelihood of getting an interview. This goes back to point #1 of front-loading the process; you don’t want to wait til the last minute and either submit secondary essays late, or submit them on time with poor quality. Quality and timeliness are both equally important.

5. Stuck? Ask Us to Review Your Primary and We Can Suggest Topics For Your Secondary Application!

The authors of Cracking Med School Admissions have written over a hundred secondary essays among ourselves as well as edited THOUSANDS of medical school secondary essays! We know what it takes to write a great secondary application, and we’ve passed on our knowledge to help hundreds of students succeed too. Check out our secondary essay packages and other services we offer.

As always, you can email us questions at [email protected]

Medical School Secondary Essay Prompts Database

• Albany Medical College Secondary Application Prompts
• Baylor Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Columbia Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Cornell Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Drexel Medical School Secondary Prompts
• Duke University Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• GW Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Harvard Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Howard University Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Johns Hopkins Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Mayo Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Miami Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Mount Sinai Secondary Application Prompts
• Northwestern Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• NYU Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Ohio State Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• OHSU Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Penn State Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Rosalind Franklin Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Rutgers Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• SUNY Downstate Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Texas Tech Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• UC Irvine Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• UC Los Angeles Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• UC Riverside Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• UC San Diego Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• UC San Francisco Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• University of Chicago Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• University of Cincinnati Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• University of Michigan Medical School Secondary Essays Prompts
• University of Oklahoma Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Secondary Application
• University of Pittsburgh Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• University of Rochester Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• University of Washington Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Vanderbilt Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Virginia Tech Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Washington University St Louis Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Wayne State Medical School Secondary Application Prompts
• Yale Medical School Secondary Application Prompts

secondary Packages

Stand out   with our Secondary Essay Editing Packages!

FAQ’s about secondaries from This Year’s Applicants

UPDATED JUNE 26, 2019

Q: When do I have to submit secondaries by?

As soon as possible. We do not like to exchange quality for quantity (quick turnaround). An ideal turnaround time for secondaries is within 2 weeks of receiving them. 

Q: Can you help me brainstorm topics for my secondary essays?

This requires an extremely personalized approach and answer. Please contact us below or email us at [email protected] if you need help!

Q:  Do you have any tips about medical school secondary essays that ask you to write about the autobiography?

Purpose : The purpose of the medical school secondary autobiography is to tell the admissions committee about your values and roots. Your autobiographical stories need to show and convey to the reader who you are. Therefore, every single paragraph and story you tell about your childhood and upbringing needs to reflect something about you. If you talk about your  relatives, what did they teach you? If you talk about music, then why is that meaningful to you? If you bring up your mom’s career, how did that motivate you? 

Tips: After you talk about some of your values, you need to then tie it to your more recent experiences. Your values really need to reflect that you have done in college and beyond. Your values and personality traits should be apparent through the activities that you chose to pursue.

Thinking about these connections will help you write a superb medical school secondary essay autobiography! 

Q.  What topics can I write about for the “Diversity essay?”

Diversity can literally mean ANYTHING. Don’t think that diversity only equals discussing your ethnic or cultural background.

Our Cracking Med School Admissions mentees have written about these topics for the diversity essays:

• Extra-curricular activities
• Difficult up-bringing
• Interesting aspects about their up-bringing
• Jobs they have held
• Leadership positions
• Travel experiences
• Global health activities
• Cultural influences, including cultural instruments and dance

Q. A school has optional essays. What are your thoughts about answering them?

In general, the Cracking Med School Admissions team thinks that almost all the time, 

Q: One of the schools asked about “challenges in my pre-med journey.” What are appropriate topics to write about?

Students in the past have used this optional essay to write about difficult circumstances in their: family situation, upbringing, health issues, and failing a course. 

Q:  Does having a B- in a course sound like a challenge?

Typically, we advise students to NOT write about B-‘s as a challenging life circumstance. It usually comes off as very superficial!

Q: What are your prices for secondary essay editing? 

Please see our secondary packages below. 

Contact Us. We're Excited to Help!

• Your Name *
• Your Email *
• Phone (optional)
• Leave us a Message or Question! We will email and call you back. *
• Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Start typing and press enter to search

Advertisement

Supported by

Russia Sentences U.S. Citizen to 12 Years in Prison on Treason Charges

Ksenia Karelina is accused of donating $52 to a New York-based nonprofit that sends assistance to Ukraine.

• Share full article

By Anton Troianovski and Ivan Nechepurenko

A court in Russia sentenced a dual citizen of Russia and the United States on Thursday to 12 years in prison on accusations that she committed treason by donating money — about $50 — for Ukraine’s armed forces.

The court, in the city of Yekaterinburg, claimed to have found that the funds donated by the woman, Ksenia Karelina, 32 , “were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition” for Ukraine.

The prosecution nearly always gets its way in treason cases in Russia’s stage-managed judicial system, but her lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, said he would still appeal to try to get her sentence reduced.

“I was not surprised by the prison sentence or the way the trial was conducted,” Mr. Mushailov said by telephone from Yekaterinburg.

The conviction of Ms. Karelina, also known as Ksenia Khavana, was the latest in a series of treason and other cases by Russia against citizens of Western countries. The surge in such cases in recent years has raised concerns that the Kremlin views the accused as valuable assets to be traded for high-profile Russians held by the United States and other countries in the West.

Mr. Mushailov said that in addition to appealing Ms. Karelina’s sentence, he would be “taking all the legally required actions” to make her part of any future prisoner exchange between Russia and the West.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

• Find People

• Press Releases
• Media Reports

Four Pitt Professors Honored With Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grants

PITTSBURGH— Four University of Pittsburgh faculty members have been selected for 2013-14 Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar grants. Administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is the flagship international educational exchange effort sponsored by the U.S. government. 

The Fulbright Program provides teaching and/or research opportunities to U.S. faculty and experienced professionals in a wide variety of academic and professional fields. Pitt’s 2013-14 Core Fulbright Scholar grant recipients are: 

* Susan Andrade, a professor of English in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, who has been awarded a Senior Scholar Fulbright-Nehru Award at Christ University in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. 

* Jonathan Arac, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English in the Dietrich School, who has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant for American Studies at the University of Naples L’Orientale in Naples, Italy. 

* Peter Brusilovsky, a professor and chair of the Information Science & Technology Program in the School of Information Sciences, who has been awarded a Fulbright-Nokia Distinguished Chair in Information and Communications Technologies at the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. 

* Valerian E. Kagan, a professor and vice chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health in the Graduate School of Public Health, who has been awarded a Fulbright Canada Visiting Research Chair in Environmental Studies at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. 

“These grants reflect the great work being done by our faculty and the strong emphasis that we put on international research and education at Pitt,” said Pitt Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Patricia E. Beeson. “I am confident that the research projects that Professors Andrade, Arac, Brusilovsky, and Kagan will be pursuing with their grants—literature, online learning, and public health—will make significant contributions to the Fulbright program’s mission of increasing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”

Andrade is the author of The Nation Writ Small: African Fictions and Feminisms, 1958-1988 (Duke University Press, 2011), which focuses on the work of Africa’s first post-independence generation of novelists. She also served as a coeditor for the book Atlantic Cross-Currents/Transatlantiques (Africa World Press, 2001) and guest-edited a special issue on comparative African fiction for the journal NOVEL in 2008. 

As a Pitt professor, Andrade has been involved in numerous efforts to better inform Pittsburgh’s student populations about the literary arts. In 2011, she organized a conference at Pitt on English-speaking Asian novels as well as a realism seminar at Carnegie Mellon University during the 2008-09 academic year. 

Andrade is a specialist reader in postcolonial studies for the advisory committee of the PMLA , the journal of the Modern Language Association of America. She also serves on the editorial board of Ariel: A Review of International English Literature as well as Research in African Literatures , widely considered the premier journal of African literary studies worldwide. 

In addition, Arac will teach a related course on the history of the American novel, which will closely examine Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (Harper & Brothers, 1851). 

Arac is the author of four books analyzing American and British fiction, poetry, and social criticism. He also has edited six volumes of essays on the topics of literary criticism and theory. His primary areas of research and expertise are U.S. literature and culture since 1820 as well as British literature and culture from 1740-1940. 

Prior to coming to Pitt in 2006, Arac served as the Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. During a career in higher education spanning more than 40 years, he also has held faculty positions at Duke University, Princeton University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition, Arac has held prominent visiting professorship positions at Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, and the University of Oxford. Arac earned his BA, MA, and PhD degrees at Harvard University. 

Brusilovsky’s areas of research and expertise focus on topics related to artificial intelligence, human/computer interaction, and web-based education technology. A professor at Pitt since 2000, Brusilovsky also has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, the Tokyo Denki University, and the National College of Ireland in Dublin, among other internationally renowned institutions. 

Brusilovsky’s awards and distinctions include a Dr. Honoris Causa degree from the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2009, as well as the E.T.S. Walton Visitor Award from the Science Foundation of Ireland in 2006. His work has received funding from such notable organizations as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of U.S. Naval Research. Brusilovsky is a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society.  

Brusilovsky earned BS and MS degrees in applied mathematics as well as a PhD degree in computer science at Moscow State University. 

Kagan’s areas of research and expertise pertain to free radical biochemistry. In addition to Pitt, he has taught and conducted research at such notable international institutions as Karolinska Institute in Sweden, King’s College in London, the Russian State Medical University in Moscow, the Taipei Medical University in China, and the University of California at Berkeley. Kagan is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as a member of the American Society of Toxicology and the International Society for Free Radical Research.

Kagan earned BS, MS, and PhD degrees in biochemistry and biophysics at Lomonosov Moscow State University. He also earned a Doctor of Science degree in biochemistry and biophysics at the USSR Academy of Sciences. 

Established in 1946 by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Annually, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program sends approximately 800 American professionals to 155 countries to lecture, research, and participate in a range of endeavors. 

11/11/13/amm/cjhm

Media Resources

• Pittwire >

• Contact News Reps  >

• Photos to Download  >

• Video/B-Roll >

Schools of the Health Sciences Media Relations

For more information about Pitt's schools of dental medicine, health and rehabilitation sciences, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health, click here >

To locate stories from health science schools prior to 2013, visit the UPMC news archives »

Urgent Question?

University of Pittsburgh news reps are available to answer urgent media inquiries. Outside of regular business hours (Mon-Fri, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.), please email us at [email protected] .

News reps for University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences schools can be reached outside of regular business hours through the paging operator at 1+412-647-2345 .

Social Media

Rss news from pitt, publications.

• News & Magazines
• Pitt Magazine
• Pitt Med magazine
• University Fact Book
• University Times