Renewing local networks in times of international upheaval - Faculty solidarity as a response to faculty fear

• In Event: Renewing local networks in times of international upheaval - Faculty solidarity as a response to faculty fear

Proposal

US higher education institutions (HEI) are under attack on a multitude of fronts that seem almost impossible to comprehend. From violations of academic free speech, limitations on what to teach, and how to govern, to draconian funding cuts and violations against international students, the challenges to teach topics that encompass the field of comparative and international education (CIE), are increasingly fraught.

As faculty members’ research and student opportunities become increasingly scarce, there is a need to sustain our field in various ways. One such approach is being built by comparative education faculty in public universities in Virginia. FaCE of VA is a loose collective of CIE faculty members across public universities in Virginia, who met by chance at the CIES 2025 conference in Chicago and have begun working together to build community, share research, and engage in a supportive community to weather the challenging times.

Our hope, as a collective, is to bring together a scholarly community of faculty and students who are ‘dedicated to advancing the field of comparative and international education.’ Working together, we aim to enhance our academic partnerships, experiment with new ways of sharing our research, and provide opportunities for students to find hope in the field, despite current challenges. We are intentionally visiting one another in-person at one another’s campuses to foster deeper relationships and connections to the places we live and work.

In our planning, gatherings, and collaboration, the faculty members in this initiative are beginning to ask some central questions that are grounded in the current context. We are seeking to better understand:
How do local movements and solidarity protect our identities as CIE scholars when the environment is less than optimal for our work?
What can we do together in our states to support and motivate students who might fear a career in this field in the future?
How can we leverage our leaders, local funding, and local allies to ensure that the field of CIE remains a robust aspect of our local institutions and communities?
How can we support each other, as human beings, to ensure that we are able to remain optimistic despite the attacks we are seeing/facing more frequently?

This session brings together members of this collective to speak to these questions. As a group, we have been intentionally gathering in-person and at our campuses with open agendas to “re-inhabit” our communities and to “decolonize” our relationships (Gruenewald, 2003). At this point, we have had one face-to-face gathering, one planned for October that involves faculty and doctoral students in this discussion, and one more to be scheduled prior to the CIES 2026 conference). In these meetings, we have been reflecting, conceptualizing, and action planning for our future as scholars, thinkers and leaders in this field.

In our self-study, we are beginning to also ask ourselves:
How did this group stimulate your scholarly inspiration? What benefit is gained from our collegiality?
In this intentional placed-based approach (Gruenewald, 2003) , how do place, connection, and nature impact individuals and the group ? How do you envision this group developing and serving the greater global good?

Some of our initial data (reflections) point to the value of such groupings. One participant shared that the importance of community is critical to sustenance:
“I genuinely crave opportunities to create communities of meaningful connections, where we can speak of our passion and be understood and accepted. This group seems to have the DNA that makes this a real possibility.”

Another responded to the invitation:
“The hope came from the open-endedness of the invitation: ‘Right now, we don't know exactly what ‘it’ is, but we wanted to convene a group of people to see if we could do some envisioning… sharing, convening, and organizing.’ That openness made me feel like I belonged from the start. I hoped to make meaningful connections—not just professionally, but personally. Personal connection is how I transform from an introvert to an extrovert.”

Another thought about how important it is to tell our colleagues at our home institutions more of what we are doing:
“I think we need to find ways to better tell the story of all the good work we have going on” and another said, “I appreciated being able to speak with colleagues freely and without explanation of the challenges I’ve been experiencing these past few months.”

Another brought it back to the students:
“The meeting inspired me to think collaboratively about global issues. XX and I often discussed taking students abroad from our respective universities. I think there might be a way to do this across multiple universities. That is exciting. I love introducing students to a new culture and watching them grow. That might happen here.”

Finally, this opportunity allowed another participant to think about the security this group offers in these times:
“I have been wondering how we make sense of the world right now - and how we can continue to do this work when it is under such threat. Yet - being with this group reminded me that we could still be engaged, and literally ‘think globally, act locally.’”

Our session aims to provide a deeper analysis of how we are building solidarity and support for the work of CIE in our local communities. At the same time, we also navigate the need to be sustained by our local colleagues through our shared CIES experience. Our work also aligns with the CIES 2026 theme. s the field is increasingly under attack, the need to re-examine how we think about peace through our work, and through our relationships, is what might offer us a chance to renew ourselves until we find ourselves again on stable ground.

Citations

Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12.

Authors

• Supriya Baily, George Mason University

• Jayson W. Richardson, William & Mary School of Education

• Edward Brantmeier, James Madision University

• Dawn Hathaway, George Mason University

• Chrystal A. George Mwangi, George Mason University

• Michelle Dawn Cude

• Leslie W. Grant, William & Mary School of Education

• Katya Koubek, James Madison University