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
Introduction: A. Aneesh, Executive Director, Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages
Opening Remarks: Chris Long, Provost & Senior Vice President
Special Remarks: Jordan Schnitzer, Philanthropist and Business Leader
4:30-6:00 PM —Teaching on/in Fascism
This panel 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.
Moderator: Miriam Chorley-Schulz (University of Oregon)
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
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
9:00-10:45 AM — 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.
Moderator: Ali Malik (University of Oregon)
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
Martha Kenney and Martha Lincoln (San Francisco State University)
Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University
Jon Jaramillo (University of Oregon)
Authorship After Abundance: Transtextuality, AI, and the Reconfiguration of Literary Production
10:45-11:00 AM — Coffee Break
11:00 AM-12:15 PM — 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.
Moderator: Alisa Freedman (University of Oregon)
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
Michel Estefan (University of California, San Diego)
The Contradictory Pedagogical Paradigms of the American University
Jeffrey Sommers (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
“Education Alone Does Not Support Democracy, but the Right Educational Content Can”
12:15-1:15 PM — Lunch
1:15-2:30 PM — Roundtable: A Public Good: Higher Education and Autonomy in Oregon
This roundtable convenes state and university leaders—including the Dean and Vice Provost for the Division of Global Engagement, the president of the UO Senate, the president of United Academics, and the two former co‑editors of the AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom—to examine the evolving relationship between the state and its public universities. The roundtable will probe how tax exemptions, philanthropic giving, and public oversight shape institutional autonomy and the long‑term sustainability of Oregon’s higher‑education system. Speakers will also discuss the centrality of global education, internationalization, and a diversified educational ecosystem in strengthening Oregon’s public mission.
Moderator: Pedro García-Caro (University of Oregon)
Michael Dreilling (University of Oregon)
Dennis Galvan (University of Oregon)
Kate Mills (University of Oregon)
Dyana Mason (University of Oregon)
Emily Simnitt (University of Oregon)
2:30-2:45 PM — Coffee Break
2:45-4:30 PM — Roundtable: Resisting Authoritarianism: Europe and the United States
Capitalism’s relentless push for economic productivity has compromised democratic processes, accelerating the exploitation of both natural resources and social systems. Amidst rising social corruption and warfare, this panel examines the emotional toll on students and citizens. We will explore historic German resistance movements following WWI and WWII, the conditions facing the Sámi (the only Aboriginal Peoples of Europe) whose colonization connects these broader struggles to indigenous rights and to local acts of defiance and solidarity in Eugene.
Moderator: Diana Garvin (University of Oregon)
Michael Stern (University of Oregon)
Dorothee Ostmeier (University of Oregon)
Alex Colombo (University of Oregon)
Alexis Lisandro Guizar-Diaz (Electoral Field Director for Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, Portland State University)
Saturday, May 9 - Crater Lake Rooms, EMU
8:30-9:00 AM — Coffee and Light Breakfast
9:00-10:15 AM — 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
Satadru Bhattacharyya (University of Connecticut)
Lessons in Loyalty: Rescripting India’s National Identity Through Curriculum
10:15-10:30 AM — Coffee Break
10:30 AM-12:00 PM — 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.
Moderator: Yvonne Braun (University of Oregon)
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
Michael Andres Cook (University of Oregon)
Queering Constraint: Navigating Institutional Risk, Belonging, and Legibility in Study Abroad
12:00-1:00 PM — Lunch
1:00-2:30 PM — 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.
Moderator: Smadar Ben-Natan (University of Oregon)
Deepa Das Acevedo (Emory University School of Law)
Academic Freedom in the Age of Viral Communication
Benjamin Tromly (University of Puget Sound)
“Viewpoint Diversity” and Academic Freedom in Recent Higher Education Debates in the United States
Emily Taylor (Independent Scholar and Honorary Research Fellow, Western Sydney University)
Academic Freedom and Civil Liberties at Private Colleges and Universities in South Carolina
2:30-2:45 PM — Closing Remarks and Thanks