UNC-Chapel Hill plans to close its six “area studies” centers this year as part of an effort to cut more than $85 million from the university’s budget.
The centers, which are part of the College of Arts and Sciences, are not academic departments. Instead, they function as interdisciplinary hubs for research, learning, and community outreach focused on their respective corners of the globe: Africa, Asia, Europe, Eurasia and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.
The decision to close the centers at UNC-CH came as a surprise to many on campus, raising questions and concerns among faculty leaders about how officials decided to shutter them and whether they followed traditional norms of shared governance. Noting that the Faculty Council was not involved, chair Beth Moracco called the process “a breach.” (An “advisory group” of two staff and two faculty, who also hold administrative roles, gave input on the decision, per the university.)
Campus leaders have said the closings, which were first reported by The Daily Tar Heel last month, stem from the centers losing federal funding last year when the Trump administration canceled grant funds for international studies programs. But many of the centers’ directors contend they still get sizable amounts of funding from other sources, such as foundations and private donors.
University officials plan to “preserve the core activities of the centers wherever possible,” UNC-CH interim Provost Jim Dean said at a faculty meeting.
We at The Assembly—which includes several UNC-CH graduates, three of whom cover higher education—found this situation pretty confusing. We asked directors of the centers how they differ from academic departments with similar-sounding names, and whether their work could continue in a different part of the university. Four responded to our questions.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
How is your center situated within the university?
Claudia Yaghoobi, director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies (CMEIS): The center is an interdisciplinary academic center that functions as shared infrastructure across the university. It supports faculty, students, and programs housed in multiple departments and professional schools. CMEIS operates as a coordinating hub that links departments, language programs, research initiatives, and public engagement efforts related to the Middle East and Islamic world across the campus.
CMEIS is an institutional infrastructure, not a niche or standalone program. Because of this structure, CMEIS amplifies existing academic strengths across the College and the university more broadly rather than duplicating departmental functions.
Pamela Lothspeich, director of the Carolina Asia Center (CAC): CAC is a unit housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, but serves all students and faculty across UNC-CH and also works closely with other universities in the UNC System. On campus, the CAC has close relationships with Global Affairs, Study Abroad, and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, but it works with all colleges, schools, and departments on campus.
Over the past year, the CAC has continued to award grants to faculty for conference travel and course development, and to student groups for activities, even in the absence of new Title VI funding. It also regularly supports visiting scholars from Asia, who collaborate with faculty in the College and the professional schools.
Gabriela Valdivia, director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA): ISA is an interdisciplinary institute that supports and promotes Latin American and Caribbean studies through research, teaching, and public service, building on more than a century of scholarship at UNC-CH. ISA offers a broad hemispheric focus for research and study within the College of Arts and Sciences.
The institute is one of the earliest specialized centers for Latin American scholarship in the U.S.
Priscilla Layne, director of the Center for European Studies (CES): CES is a home for students interested in studying Europe and the transatlantic relationship and who want to work in this space, whether in the federal government, in non-governmental organizations, or in the private sector. Students participate in career readiness activities that we facilitate, and experiential education opportunities like study abroad, Model European Union, and Model NATO. We also provide support for faculty research and teaching and student scholarships.
Does your center offer or facilitate any degree programs?
Yaghoobi: CMEIS does not grant degrees. Instead, it supports student learning by enhancing, coordinating, and sustaining academic and career pathways that are housed in departments.
Specifically, CMEIS supports student learning through curricular enrichment and interdisciplinary programming that complements departmental courses; support for Middle East-related language study (Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish, Urdu); experiential learning opportunities such as study abroad preparation, internships, fellowships, and research and career pathways; public lectures, conferences, and workshops that bring global expertise directly into student learning environments.
CMEIS plays a critical role in helping students connect coursework to careers, graduate study, and public service, particularly in globally focused fields.
Lothspeich: CAC does not have a curriculum or grant degrees. However, it directly supports student learning by providing scholarships and fellowships to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who are studying about Asia and studying abroad in Asia. Students also benefit from the course development awards we administer to faculty across the university, including those in the professional schools. These course development grants help prepare their students for the globalized workplace they will enter.
Beyond the classroom, CAC is a crucial institutional unit and intellectual hub that runs events about Asia and supports faculty and student groups who run events about Asia. These include hands-on workshops on topics like academic writing and publishing; talks by scholars, artists, government officials, and public intellectuals; professional networking events; national and regional conferences; facilitated film screenings; and language tables (informal clubs to learn languages).
Valdivia: ISA is home to the curriculum in Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LTAM) and the graduate certificate in Latin American Studies. Introductory courses take a hemispheric approach to learning about the Americas, and advanced courses in the LTAM curriculum invest in student engagement with local governments and community-based organizations. [Editor’s note: Per the UNC-CH course catalog, the LTAM curriculum is an interdisciplinary undergraduate major.]
ISA also stewards its diverse funding portfolio, of which federal support currently constitutes roughly 10%, to support a broader audience, within and beyond the university, invested in studying and learning about Latin America and the Caribbean. ISA sponsors research and travel grants that sustain professional and scholarship development for students at every level; sustains student-faculty working groups across disciplines and colleges; maintains publication series with UNC and Duke presses; sponsors the N.C. Latin American Film Festival; hosts speaker series and conferences; and collaborates with local governments and community partners throughout North Carolina. These activities leverage external resources to strengthen the university’s teaching, research, and service missions.
Layne: CES houses the Contemporary European Studies (EURO) undergraduate major and the TransAtlantic masters program, a dual-degree program with seven partner universities in Europe.
Are faculty based out of the center?
Yaghoobi: CMEIS works with affiliated faculty whose primary appointments are in departments across the university. Faculty affiliation with CMEIS generally means that faculty participate in interdisciplinary research networks connected to the center; collaborate on conferences and scholarly initiatives; host or contribute to lectures, workshops, and public events; mentor students engaged in Middle East–related research and language study; and help shape academic programming and intellectual direction for the field.
This model allows CMEIS to leverage existing faculty expertise across the university, fostering collaboration that would not occur within departmental silos.
Lothspeich: The CAC has affiliated or associated faculty, but they are based in their home departments. These faculty are designated as affiliates because they teach and/or research about Asia, and oftentimes the CAC has supported their work.
The center’s staff are not full-time faculty, although two—the associate director and the assistant director of Southeast Asia initiatives—have adjunct faculty appointments and occasionally teach courses.
Valdivia: ISA has affiliated faculty who have their own home departments. ISA creates programming that brings these individuals together through social gatherings, working groups, conferences, and mentorship programs.
In addition, ISA stewards three professorships that support the scholarship of Latin Americanist and Caribbeanist faculty affiliated with ISA in the College. These professorships are endowed positions that increase ISA’s ability to help recruit and retain high-quality Latin Americanist and Caribbeanist scholarship and teaching at UNC.
Many faculty and students have expressed that one of the reasons why they choose UNC over other universities is the national reputation of ISA as a hub for vibrant interdisciplinary scholarship.
Layne: CES has affiliated faculty who are based in departments like political science, history, Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, art history, and journalism. Affiliated faculty often apply to CES to receive funding for course development grants, travel abroad for research, and on-campus events like bringing international speakers or hosting film screenings. Affiliated faculty frequently serve on thesis committees and oversee students’ summer research projects.
What do you feel the university would lose by closing your center?
Yaghoobi: Closing CMEIS would result in the loss of central coordinating infrastructure for Middle East and Islamic studies, with effects that extend far beyond the center itself.
Documented losses include: fragmentation of academic programming and weakened interdisciplinary collaboration; reduced research capacity and diminished scholarly credibility in a globally significant field; weakened recruitment and retention of students and faculty whose work depends on regional expertise; loss of an inclusive academic space that fosters belonging and mentorship for students; diminished public engagement, teacher training, and outreach across North Carolina; long-term reputational harm to the university as a global public research institution.
Once this infrastructure is dismantled, it would be difficult or impossible to rebuild, even if future funding became available.
Lothspeich: I agree that the departments are not equipped to do the kind of interdisciplinary, collaborative, and outreach work that the centers do.
The departments are also not equipped to write complex grant applications that bring in huge sums of money for our initiatives—ones that directly benefit students and faculty. The CAC, for example, has brought in over $10 million since its founding in 2002.
Beyond its financial value, I would add that the CAC is an intellectual hub that facilitates understanding and learning not only about Asia, but also from Asia. It supports meaningful dialogue between our campus and Asia. Closing the center would cut off this dialogue and exchange of ideas.
Valdivia: Centers are not ancillary units. They are infrastructural, and among the university’s most generative and collaborative spaces—where undergraduate, graduate, and professional students work alongside faculty and community partners across North Carolina, the nation, and the world to advance new ways to relate to shifting global circumstances.
The centers give institutional form to UNC-CH’s promise of “transformative global education available to all students,” through opportunities for training, learning, research, and engagement.
I have received letters from alumni, faculty, and students expressing what a difference the ISA made to their professional trajectories. Alumni are shocked that the administration does not see this. The centers serve future doctors, lawyers, teachers, social workers, public servants, and more in North Carolina, regardless of their academic unit. This is why the work that the centers do cannot be absorbed or replicated by individual academic departments—it is in the core mission and vision of centers to serve all units and amplify interdisciplinary engagement.
Breaking up and dividing up the centers to attach their services to departments is ill-advised. Departments and curricula have their own disciplinary and unit commitments to follow, which might not always coincide with the interdisciplinary training and professional growth that centers sustain university-wide.
Layne: Closing CES would mean giving up UNC-CH’s standing as one of the premier research universities for European studies.
Currently, when delegates from the European Union travel to North Carolina, they reach out to us to connect with faculty and students. Ambassadors from the EU have complimented us for having a robust program with exceptional students. Closing CES would send the message that UNC-CH is not interested in teaching students and the community about Europe.
North Carolina is home to over 1,500 European companies. Such businesses are, in part, drawn to our state due to our highly educated graduates who command a great deal of cultural competence about Europe. For such stakeholders, closing CES looks like a disinvestment in relations with Europe, which might make them start looking to establish ties with other states.
UNC-CH would also lose the competitiveness for applying for grants from the European Commission and other European sources, which often require the programs applying to be interdisciplinary. If UNC can no longer apply for these grants, our peer institutions around the country will step in to secure that money instead.
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