May 8–10, 2026 | University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, PA
Hybrid Conference; some sessions will be available virtually.
Registration information coming soon! To register your interest and stay updated, please fill out this form.
Real-world challenges require globally prepared citizens with deep proficiency in the languages and cultures of the world. For nearly seven decades, universities have met this need, supporting the teaching of both commonly and less commonly taught languages, as well as interdisciplinary area and international studies, with long term additional support from federal grants. The result is a robust US higher education infrastructure for educating students and community members about the world. Yet, amidst changing priorities at both the federal and institutional levels often driven by both student demand and work force needs, university centers are at a crossroads. What is the future for international and area studies today?
The University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for International Studies (UCIS) invites leading scholars and practitioners for a series of timely conversations aimed at reimagining area and global studies for the next generations. Join us to think beyond enduring paradigms, inherited structures, and established practices as we create new horizons for interdisciplinary research & learning, engagement, coalition-building, and more. Through generative plenaries, solutions-oriented breakout sessions, and community-enhancing activities, this conference will bring together multiple perspectives from the United States and beyond to address the following key charges:
- Reimagining the framing and value proposition of global and area studies
- Strengthening existing networks to address emerging needs
- Designing new models of partnership for long-term sustainability
Call for Proposals
We welcome proposals for breakout sessions (format: panels, roundtables, or workshops; 75 min per session) addressing the themes of the conference. Sessions can be focused on specific, defined regions (traditional or novel) or transnational/thematic issues. Potential topics/themes include but are not limited to:
- Re-thinking Citizenship Education and Outreach
- Aligning center outreach with institutional priorities
- Engaging Pre-K & K-12 educators and students
- Collaborating meaningfully with CC & MSI educators and students
- Developing international partnerships to imagine new futures
- Revisiting interdisciplinary learning outcomes for a global workforce
- New models for resource sharing and collaborations
- Addressing declines in language education and support for language teaching
- Models of sustainability that are not dependent on federal funding
- Building high-impact regional initiatives for resource-sharing (examples: Global Appalachia: citizenship education in the Rust Belt; Big Ten Academic Alliance, etc.)
