The University of Pittsburgh welcomed leading scholars and practitioners working across international and foreign language education this May to discuss the question: What is the future of International and Area Studies (IAS) given a rapidly changing higher education landscape? With the rise of Large Language Models, shifting government priorities, and changes in student demand, there are many open questions about the value and long-term prospects for university centers that focus on interdisciplinary understandings of global issues and specific regions of the world.
At the Future(s) of International and Area Studies Conference, panelists and practitioners confronted these issues in a variety of lectures and conversations, sharing perspectives on overcoming the present obstacles and how IAS scholarship remains relevant in our changing and inter-connected world.
The topic of Title VI grants, which fund National Resource Centers (NRCs) in international and area studies around the country, loomed large throughout the event. International and Area Studies in the United States emerged during the Cold War, when American anxieties over the Soviet Union and the threat of communism led the government to fund scholarship into other regions of the world.
The US Department of Education under Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson authorized and expanded funding for foreign language and area studies through Title VI of the National Defense Education Act. Over the past sixty years, Title VI grants like the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships have been instrumental in funding programs to expand the reach and scholarship of IAS.
For reference, in 2022, 98 NRC awards were granted to 44 institutions. The University of Pittsburgh received a record 6 of those 98 awards in addition to receiving 6 of the 122 FLAS grants awarded to 46 institutions. Recent changes within the Department of Education have made the future of these grants uncertain.
The conference provided an opportunity to take a critical look at the future of the IAS field and the work being done at the University of Pittsburgh. These conversations felt especially urgent in light of changing federal funding practices, which are reshaping the landscape in which this work takes place.
As Allyson Delnore, Interim Executive Director of International Affairs at Pitt, noted, “this is a field that was born out of a specific historical moment that has passed… and so the need for what we do has evolved over time.”
Delnore also emphasized why Pitt was well positioned to host these discussions, pointing to its strong Title VI centers, national networks, and institutional partnerships. These connections allowed the university not only to participate in the conversation, but to help shape and advance it.
Several major topics recurred throughout the conference, chief among them sustainability, communication, and collaboration. In Friday’s opening session, New Frontiers for IAS, Indiana University’s Hillary Khan referenced the Platinum Rule of Global Studies, namely: “Do unto others as they would do unto themselves”.
This saying came to be echoed or paraphrased throughout the rest of the conference to describe the ideal of IAS scholarship, which encourages a deep understanding of the cultural contexts within which different people operate. Attendees also asked how, in a world where students receive information differently than in previous generations, can they encourage learners to view the world through a global lens?
Despite ongoing challenges, contributors shared optimistic perspectives, with attendees sharing insights on everything from viable economic frameworks to relationships with donors and alumni. Bill Rivers gave hopeful projections that careers in a growing global language industry had not been hindered by the rise of AI. A panel of Deans, moderated by School of Public and International Affairs Dean Carissa Slotterback, discussed their own commitments to sustainable communication and support for IAS scholarship.
A group of IAS scholars from the University of Pittsburgh ran a session about building on institutional strengths to create “a welcoming and engaged campus culture that strengthens partnerships throughout Western Pennsylvania” and the world—discussing the place of the local Appalachian region as a focus of global study, increasing community access to Pitt facilities, the creation of local hiring opportunities, and the importance of fostering partnerships to promote sustainable growth.
Shannon Wanless, Director of Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research, spoke about driving a network of university-community partnered organizations and the importance of making open data easily accessible and useable to anyone.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Latin American Studies’ ongoing work with community members of descendants of slavery in Brazil was presented as a model for how Pitt’s commitments to community-engaged work can extend beyond our region, and presenters and guests engaged in an open conversation about existing community outreach programs.
IAS practitioners from eighty-five different institutions and organizations, thirty of which are members of the Association of American Universities, attended the conference either in-person or virtually.
The University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies extends its gratitude to the many campus and community partners whose sponsorship, collaboration, support, and participation helped make this year’s conference possible.
Written by Liam Weixel
