PITTSBURGH, PA
Situated where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers converge to become the Ohio River, Pittsburgh is aptly known as the “City of Bridges” with over 440 bridges uniting the diverse valleys, hillsides, and river plains that comprise the Appalachian city.
An urban link between the Atlantic coast and the Midwest, Pittsburgh is home to 68 colleges and universities, including the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Fred Rogers, Gene Kelly, Art Blakey, Vanessa German, August Wilson, Phillip Glass, Andy Warhol, Willa Cather, Jonas Salk, and Rachel Carson are among the innumerable remarkable individuals who have at one time called Pittsburgh home over the past century.
Pittsburgh has much to recommend it. Among its many attractions, it is one of the largest urban forests in the United States, home to the National Aviary and a number of internationally renowned museums, the city boasts its own unique dialect with a ‘yinz’ to rival ‘y’all’ and has a food culture that earned it the title of “Food City of the Year” in 2019.
But the Pittsburgh area has been a gathering place for Americans long before it bore its current name.
Dionde:gâ
At Meadowcroft Rockshelter, an architectural site 27 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, evidence has been found to suggest the area has been continuously inhabited for over 16,000 years. During the time of the Adena culture (1000 to 200BCE) a large earthwork mound was built as a burial site in what is now the McKees Rocks suburb of Pittsburgh. This site was then further developed by members of the Hopewell culture (100BCE-500CE). The Monongahela people followed and remained in the area until the 17th century.
By the 18th century and the arrival of European settlement, the Iroquois Confederacy held jurisdiction over the area, which was also home to the Lenape, Shawnee, Wyandot, Tisagechroami, Delaware, and Mohican.
Dionde:gâ is the Seneca name for Pittsburgh.
The University of Pittsburgh
The conference will take place at the University of Pittsburgh in the Oakland neighborhood. The University was founded in 1787 as the Pittsburgh Academy and acquired its current name in 1908. Over 28,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students attend the University. The leafy urban campus is comprised of a number of historic buildings, most iconic of which is the Cathedral of Learning, a 42-story Gothic Revival tower commissioned in 1921. Amongst the building’s over 2,000 rooms are a four-story high vaulted hall and thirty Nationality Rooms that celebrate America’s history of immigration.
