Global Futures of Higher Education: Autonomy in the Crosshairs

The Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages invites proposals for its second annual international conference, Global Futures of Higher Education: Autonomy in the Crosshairs, to be held May 7–9, 2026, at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. This conference examines the future of higher education in an increasingly authoritarian global environment marked by democratic backsliding, political polarization, and intensifying state efforts to control knowledge production. Across regions, universities face intersecting pressures: geopolitical instability, new technologies, shifting patterns of mobility, growing demands for measurable “impact,” and deepening contests over truth, history, and public trust.
 

A central concern of this convening is systemic autonomy in higher education: the capacity of teaching and research to be guided by scholarly standards rather than direct political instruction. Universities are never separate from politics, law, the economy, or media. The question is which institutional arrangements allow these relationships to support, rather than undermine, free inquiry.

Global Focus

This conference foregrounds a global and comparative perspective. Around the world, illiberal movements seek to steer curricula, constrain research agendas, surveil campus life, and intimidate scholars and students. These pressures increasingly operate across borders through visa regimes, transnational repression, funding leverage, and coordinated disinformation.
 

We welcome proposals that analyze these dynamics comparatively, trace how constraints travel across regions, and develop practical strategies for resilience: protections for at-risk scholars, institutional toolkits for academic freedom, ethical global partnerships, and renewed commitments to language learning and area studies.

About the Schnitzer School and Eugene

The Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages is located at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, in the scenic Willamette Valley on the ancestral lands of the Kalapuya people (Kalapuya Ilihi). The campus sits between the Pacific Coast and the Cascade Mountains and is part of an AAU research institution and a Big Ten university. Eugene offers a vibrant cultural environment, with strong arts and music communities, and renowned local food.