Ariel C. Armony

  • Vice Chancellor for Global Affairs
  • Director of the University Center for International Studies

Key Areas

Global engagement • study abroad programs • international student services • international/global studies centers • international partnerships • international research opportunities • international/global studies programs • international experiential learning • international management • international education • global learning and research

Vice Chancellor Role

Dr. Ariel C. Armony leads the University-wide initiatives to expand international partnerships and global impact; promote personalized education through academic credentials; advance faculty research opportunities through international studies centers; support faculty diversity through a LatinX cluster hire; facilitate faculty and student mobility; and host visiting international scholars and postdoctoral fellows.

Professional Biography

Ariel C. Armony leads the University of Pittsburgh’s global engagement as the Vice Chancellor for Global Affairs and Director of the University Center for International Studies, home to the University’s top-ranked thematic and area studies centers. He also holds faculty appointments in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Political Science in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.

In his role as Vice Chancellor for Global Affairs, Armony works to advance the University’s global plan “Embracing the World,” which places global learning, research, partnerships, and community engagement at the center of the University’s mission. The plan takes a strategic approach to international partnerships, encourages concerted decision-making that leads to transformational action across all Pitt campuses, and guides Pitt toward real-world impact through global learning and research.

Armony is a frequent commentator for U.S. and international media, most recently on the topics of innovation in international education, the globalization of cities, and the changing role of China in Latin America. His research areas also include democratization, civil society, and human rights topics. His work has been published in top university presses (Cambridge, Stanford, and University of California) and his academic work has been influential in shaping major debates such as the relationship between democracy and civil society and the transnationalization of state-sponsored repression. He has been a leader in defining the field of China-Latin America relations. His current work, which is drawing worldwide attention, addresses the emergence of new global cities such as Miami, Dubai, and Singapore.

Before arriving at Pitt, Armony led the University of Miami’s Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas. He has been a Fulbright scholar, Rockefeller Foundation scholar, and residential fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Education & Training

  • PhD, Political Science, Certificate in Latin American Studies, University of Pittsburgh
  • MA, International Affairs, Ohio University
  • Licenciatura Philosophy and Letters, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Representative Publications

  • The Global Edge: Miami in the Twenty First Century, co-authored with Alejandro Portes, University of California Press, 2018. 
  • Building Development for a New Era: China’s Infrastructure Projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, co-edited with Enrique Dussel Peters and Shoujun Cui, Red Académica de América Latina y el Caribe sobre China, 2018. 
  • From the Great Wall to the New World: China and Latin America in the 21st Century, co-edited with Julia C. Strauss, Cambridge University Press, 2012. 
  • The Dubious Link: Civic Engagement and Democratization, Stanford University Press, 2004. Named “University Press Bestseller” by Academia.

Research Interests

  • Innovation in global education,
  • The changing role of China in Latin America
  • Globalization of cities
  • Democratization
  • Civil society
  • Human rights topics

Awards

  • Residential Fellow: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Fulbright Program in China, and Rockefeller Foundation
  • “Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization” awarded to Pitt in 2017 from NAFSA: The Association of International Educators
  • Named one of the U.S. “Top Argentine Professional and Business Leaders” by Negocios Magazine in 2017