Global Citizenship from the Rust Belt: Education, Labor, and South Asia

About This Event

Dramatic changes last year at the Department of Education collapsed the familiar area studies infrastructure presumed by our working group, subsequently requiring new collaborative frameworks beyond our original federal center/neighboring colleges model. Our September 2026 symposium situates Upstate NY schools alongside allies in other Rust Belt regions—particularly Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan—to rethink how the study of South Asia can flourish in a changing federal environment while challenges to higher education continue to develop. The symposium invites participants to explore how themes of global citizenship forged through the historical movements of people and ideas between South Asia and the Rust Belt, driven by concerns with education and labor, could provide generative regional connections and propel different institutional imaginaries of what the future of area studies infrastructure could be.

Featured Guests

• Shailaja Paik, University of Cincinnati
• Emily Rook-Koepsel, American Institute of Indian Studies

Co-sponsors

• Humanities Center, University of Rochester