Global Futures of Higher Education | Autonomy in the Crosshairs
Conference Program | May 7-9, 2026
University of Oregon, Eugene
Thursday, May 7 - Gerlinger Lounge
3:30-4:00 PM — Arrival and Check-In
4:00-4:30 PM — Introduction and Welcome
A. Aneesh, Executive Director, Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages TBD
4:30-6:00 PM —Teaching on/in Fascism
This accepted panel proposal brings together presenters who connect research on fascist culture, militarism, memory, and pedagogy to current attacks on higher education and academic freedom. Together, the papers ask how instructors can teach histories of fascism in ways that remain historically grounded while addressing their urgent present resonances.
Daniel Fried (University of Alberta)
Self-Censorship as Resistance: Strategic Secrecy Under Fascist Regimes
Johannes von Moltke (University of Michigan)
How Fascinating is Fascism? Teaching Nazi Cinema in Trump’s America
Lisa DiGiovanni (Keene State College)
Mapping Militarism, Fascism, and Gendered Indoctrination
Jacqueline Sheean (University of Utah)
Teaching History and Memory in the Age of Post-Truth 6:00-6:15 PM — Toast and Preview of Friday 6:30-8:00 PM — Conference Dinner
6:00-6:15 PM — Toast and Preview of Friday
6:30-8:00 PM — Conference Dinner
Friday, May 8 - Crater Lake Rooms, EMU
8:30-8:55 AM — Coffee and Light Breakfast
8:55-9:00 AM — Welcome for Day 2
9:00-10:30 AM —Global Strategies, Public Mission, and the Future of Higher Education
Bringing together broad comparative and institutional perspectives, this panel asks how universities might respond to intensifying authoritarian pressures while sustaining democratic purpose, global understanding, public relevance, and the pedagogical mission of higher education.
Ian F. McNeely (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Sustaining the Study of the World in the Age of America First: Lessons from Two Flagships
Sebastiaan Faber (Oberlin College)
How National Academic Cultures Can Weather Global Threats
Jeffrey Sommers (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
“Education Alone Does Not Support Democracy, but the Right Educational Content Can”
Michel Estefan (University of California, San Diego)
The Contradictory Pedagogical Paradigms of the American University
10:30-10:45 AM — Coffee Break
10:45 AM-12:00 PM — Roundtable: Resisting Authoritarianism: Europe and the United States
Centered on European perspectives at large and German and Scandinavian experiences throughout history in particular, this podium discussion features short case presentations and discussion on responses to authoritarianism.
Moderator: Diana Garvin (University of Oregon)
Michael Stern (University of Oregon)
Miriam Chorley-Schulz (University of Oregon)
Dorothee Ostmeier (University of Oregon)
Alex Colombo (University of Oregon)
Nancy Bray (Lane County Activist)
12:00-1:00 PM — Lunch
1:00-2:15 PM — Roundtable: A Public Good: Higher Education and Autonomy in Oregon”
Moderator: Pedro García-Caro (University of Oregon)
Ben Cannon (Higher Education Coordinating Committee)
Michael Dreilling (University of Oregon)
Kate Mills (University of Oregon)
Dyana Mason (University of Oregon)
2:15-2:30 PM — Coffee Break
2:30-3:45 PM — AI, Expertise, and the Changing Conditions of Academic Work
This panel examines how AI is reshaping academic labor, pedagogy, and knowledge production. Together, these papers explore the administrative pressures, communicative norms, and evaluative regimes emerging as generative AI becomes embedded in higher education.
Noopur Raval (UCLA)
Performing Skill after Generative AI
Angelica Martinez Ochoa (University of Texas at Dallas)
Autonomy of Dependency: AI, Linguistic Equity, and the Global Classroom
Haley Lepp (Stanford University)
Populist Science: Virality, Fame, and the Evaluation of AI Expertise
3:45-4:00 PM — Coffee Break
4:00-5:00 PM — Students, Dissent, and Curriculum Wars in Contemporary India
Focused on India, this panel considers the university as a contested political space where students, teachers, curricula, and public discourse are drawn into struggles over nationalism, loyalty, and dissent.
Smriti Singh (Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi)
Trending Classrooms: Students, Viral Videos, and Academic Freedom
Nishant K Narayanan (The English and Foreign Languages University)
Between Thick Descriptions: The University as Borderspace between Discourses and Academia
Satadru Bhattacharyya (University of Connecticut)
Lessons in Loyalty: Rescripting India’s National Identity Through Curriculum
6:00-8:00 PM — Conference Dinner
Saturday, May 9 - Crater Lake Rooms, EMU
8:30-9:00 AM — Coffee and Light Breakfast
9:00-10:30 AM — Speech, Truth, and Academic Freedom
This panel brings together historical, legal, and philosophical perspectives on academic freedom. The papers consider how scholars speak under conditions of heightened risk and how institutional cultures of truth, dissent, and expression are being reshaped in the contemporary university.
Deepa Das Acevedo (Emory University School of Law)
Academic Freedom in the Age of Viral Communication
Johannes Turk (Indiana University Bloomington)
Parrhesia and the Contemporary University
Benjamin Tromly (University of Puget Sound)
“Viewpoint Diversity” and Academic Freedom in Recent Higher Education Debates in the United States
10:30-10:45 AM — Coffee Break
10:45 AM-12:00 PM — Administrative Power, Political Economy, and the Remaking of Merit
These papers address how academic autonomy is constrained not only through overt repression, but also through routine administration, market pressures, and ideological redefinitions of merit and legitimacy. Drawing on cases from South Korea, Bangladesh, and Turkey, the panel offers a comparative view of governance under pressure.
Moderator: Jina Kim (University of Oregon)
Robert Hamilton (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)
South Korea and the Administration of Belonging
Aras Koksal (University of Minnesota)
Populism, Higher Education, and the Remaking of Merit in Turkey
Michael Andres Cook (University of Oregon)
Queer Identity Negotiation in Intercultural Host Family Arrangements
12:00-1:00 PM — Lunch
1:15-2:30 PM — Panel 7: Metrics, Visibility, and the Managerial University
This panel examines how universities are governed internally through surveillance, benchmarking, branding, and administrative narratives. The papers show how apparently neutral frameworks such as climate assessment, student success, and communications strategy can shape what counts as value, visibility, and legitimacy in academic life.
Vandhana Ravi (PhD Candidate, University of California, San Diego)
A Climate of Control: Historicizing Campus Climate Policies in the University of California System
Lien Fan Shen (College of Fine Arts, University of Utah)
The “Student Success” Trap: Examining the Utah Case of Devaluation of Arts in Higher Education
Arienne Calingo (Notre Dame Law School)
Branding the University: Marketing Communications as Academic Governance
2:30-2:45 PM — Closing Remarks and Thanks