IES Associate Director Dr. Akasemi Newsome attended The Future(s) of International and Area Studies Conference from May 7-10 at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Dr. Newsome was the only UC System representative invited to speak at the conference. Pittsburgh scholars and administrators convened this conference in response to the turmoil caused by Fall 2025 federal funding cuts to the State Department, National Science Foundation, the Department of Education and other U.S. agencies for research in international and area studies.
Dr. Newsome argued in favor of perspectives on Europe from outside of Europe as fertile ground for new research in European Studies in a panel titled, “Mapping Europe Anew: Collaborative Futures in European Studies.” Newsome provided the example of research findings presented by Professor Nancy Rushohora from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in her recent visit to IES. As an historical archaeologist working on collective memory, German missionaries and the MajiMaji war, Professor Rushohora’s work provides an example of how to reconceive European Studies to include research conducted by scholars located in former European colonies. Dr. Newsome also shared new insights from her own research on comparative perspectives on race and law in the EU and U.S., of which an earlier version had been presented at Nova University School of Law in Lisbon, Portugal. Randall Hansen, Professor of German at the University of Pittsburgh chaired this panel. Other participants in the panel included Dr. Erica Edwards, University of Pittsburgh, Professor Amie Kreppel, University of Florida, Dr. Elizabeth Covington, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Dr. Abby Lewis, Council of European Studies.
The panel also discussed the ethical dilemma of accepting funding from organizations wedded to the concept of Western Civilization as superior in a hierarchy of global civilizations; and the decline of new faculty jobs specifically for European Studies experts. Dr. Newsome pointed out that UCB continues to hire faculty with expertise in Europe, however rather than an historian of early modern Europe or British diplomatic history, departments in social sciences and humanities have shifted to scholars who include European countries as case studies in a global context.
Dr. Newsome also chaired a roundtable discussion titled, “Mobilizing Community Support for Area Studies featuring expertise by Dr. Jennifer Tishler, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Miguel Rojas Sotelo, Duke University, Dr Isaac Kalumbu, Michigan State University and Dr. Kanjana Thepboriruk, Northern Illinois University. These faculty and administrators leading regional research centers discussed several strategies for leveraging community interest in cutting-edge research on music, literature, art, film and language towards advocacy and philanthropy in support of Area Studies.
Some key counterintuitive takeaways from this panel included using federal cuts to consider how to build solidarity with the most impacted centers at an institution; joining consortia in new funding applications to gain greater traction and spread risk; connecting with faculty in STEM departments who conduct research in the region; and reconnecting communities with the university by bringing research on music, the arts and literature to prisons, religious organizations and museums.