Vanka Lecture Series
Explore the deep-seated history of Pittsburgh’s industrial landscape, the Croatian immigrant journey, and the powerful intersection of art and labor activism.
Join us for an immersive lecture series.
From the “furnace” of the early 20th-century steel mills to the contemporary fight for workers’ rights, each session invites you to engage with scholars, historians, and activists. We invite you to stay after each talk to share “worker food” refreshments, meet the speakers, and discuss the enduring relevance of Maxo Vanka’s sacred and social justice-driven art.
Four Sundays 3:00 – 5:00pm
3:00 – 3:15pm – Doors open, arrival, welcome
3:15 – 4:00pm – Lecture
4:00 – 4:15pm – Q&A
4:15 – 5:00pm – Ask Me and reception
Explore the Topics
Sunday, September 20, 2026
Making America: Panel Discussion
A three-person panel of United Steelworkers staff will discuss how labor demand and policy has driven immigration in the United States and shaped the ethnic profile of America throughout US history. From agriculture, basic industry to a newly emergent service economy, the panel will explore how employers have historically solicited and benefited from immigrant labor and acted as the driving engine behind migration to United States.
Panelists
Richard Schiavoni is a Pittsburgh native whose dedication to the labor movement is rooted in the legacy of his Italian immigrant relatives who labored in the region’s steel mills and railroads. Richard honors that history as a formidable leader in higher education organizing. Following the successful unionization of the University of Pittsburgh faculty, the unit was amalgamated into Richard’s local, making him the President of one of the largest academic bargaining units within the United Steelworkers. In this role, he fiercely advocates for adjunct professors, contingent faculty, and campus workers. As a long-serving adjunct history and political science professor at Point Park University, Richard also remains deeply embedded in the classroom, bringing real-world labor dynamics to his students and empowering the next generation.
Sabrina Yow-chyi Liu has been working at the United Steelworkers (USW) union in the Strategic Campaigns Department since December 2014. She conducts leverage research and works with USW members to build power against corporate greed during contract negotiations and labor disputes. She is the president and co-founder of APALA Pittsburgh (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Pittsburgh Chapter) which promotes immigrants’ and workers’ rights. She is also the president of KITA Foundation which focuses on community story-telling and oral history interview of Taiwanese freedom fighters and human rights defenders who lived in Pittsburgh from 1960s-1980s. Sabrina is an immigrant and a native of Taipei, Taiwan.
Jessica Rios Viner was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she was an award-winning journalist for a Union-represented newspaper. She moved to Pittsburgh in 2019 to work for the United Steelworkers Union. She travels the country to help workers prepare contract negotiations and build power among their membership. She serves as the president of the Pittsburgh Chapter for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and represents the USW in LCLAA’s National Executive Board. Jessica is a fierce advocate for immigrant rights and language access.
Moderator: Meredith Stepp has worked in the labor movement and for various labor unions for over twenty-five years. Currently, Meredith works as a labor educator within the United Steelworker’s Education and Membership Development Department. Prior to joining the USW, Meredith worked as a labor educator for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for eight years where she taught topics in union building and contract administration to union representatives, officers, and members across the U.S. and Canada. Meredith is Board Chair of the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka and has a love for all things social justice and art.
Sunday, January 24, 2027
Forged in Steel: Women, Immigration, and Work in Pittsburgh’s Mills
Through the 19th and 20th centuries, Pittsburgh’s steel mills shaped not only the river valleys but also the lives of the people who powered the industry. While steelwork is often remembered as a man’s world, women—many from immigrant families—played vital and often overlooked roles in the mills and the communities that grew around them. Join Dr. Kirsten Paine (Museum Education & Historic Interpretation Manager) and Barney Terrell (Curator of Collections & Interpretive Specialist) from Rivers of Steel for conversation that explores how women contributed to industrial labor, supported family economies, and navigated the challenges of immigration, cultural change, and demanding work in the heart of America’s most significant steel-producing region.
Speaker
Dr. Kirsten L. Paine is an educator and researcher with over a decade of experience in higher education and public humanities. She holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and specializes in 19th-century industrial labor, American literature, and the Civil War. At Rivers of Steel, Kirsten creates programs that bring the National Heritage Area’s history to life through archival study and primary sources. A dedicated public historian, she is currently authoring a book on female Civil War nurses, soldiers, and spies.
Past Lectures
Into the Furnace: Croatian Immigrants in Pittsburgh
Speaker: Michael Secilia
“Something of Narod”: Croatian Immigrant Church Murals Before and After the Johnson-Reed Act
Speaker: Dr Heidi Cook