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Request for Proposals 

Global Futures of Higher Education: Autonomy in the Crosshairs 

May 7–9, 2026 | University of Oregon, Eugene 

The Schnitzer School’s Center for Global futures 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.  

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):  

• Autonomy Under Pressure: Academic Freedom, Governance, and Scholar Safety Across Regions 
• Structural Couplings: Universities, Politics, Law, Economy, and Media in Global Perspective 
• Curriculum Wars Worldwide: When Knowledge Is Re-coded as Loyalty or Security 
• Beyond Borders, Under Watch: Transnational Repression and the Risks of Global Academic Work 
• Fieldwork Under Constraint: Methods, Ethics, and Care in Restricted Environments 
• Languages as Capacity: The Infrastructure of Global Understanding in an Age of Cuts and Polarization 
• Truth, Trust, and Disinformation: Universities as Targets—and as Defenders of Public Knowledge 
• AI and the Global Classroom: Innovation, Surveillance, Governance, and Equity 

Submission Guidelines 

We invite proposals from faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars across disciplines. Submissions may take the form of individual paper proposals as well as creative or experimental presentation formats. Deadline: March 1, 2026. 

Please submit your paper proposal here: https://oregon.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_da3krjH9mevZQeq  

Each proposal should include: 

• Title 
• Abstract (250–300 words) 
• Names and affiliations of participants 
• Brief bios (2–3 sentences each) 

Participant Support 

All selected participants will receive a $500 honorarium to help offset travel and lodging costs. 

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 Big Ten university. Eugene offers a vibrant cultural environment, with strong arts and music communities, a renowned local food culture, and a high quality of life.