Collaboration as an Essential Strategy in Challenging Times

Thursday, January 22, 2026

2:00 PM - 3:15 PM East Coast USA Time

Location: Mount Vernon Square - Level M3

Primary Presenter(s)

Paula Krebs

Executive Director
Modern Language Association
Brooklyn, New York, United States

Co-Presenter(s)

JC

Joy Connolly

President
American Council of Learned Societies, United States
SD

Steed Davidson

Executive Director
Society for Biblical Literature, United States
Frederick Lawrence

Secretary and CEO
Phi Beta Kappa, United States
SW

Sarah Weicksel

Executive Director
American Historical Association, United States

The flurry of Executive Orders and the actions of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have inspired a level of collaborative resistance that is new across higher education. This panel, featuring brief presentations leading to extensive audience engagement, will focus on various strategies for collaboration across higher education associations as ways to resist more effectively the attacks on the humanities, higher education, and academic freedom.

The participants' organizations are engaged in a number of efforts, including cooperative professional development programs, national organizing on graduate education, group efforts in support of academic freedom, and a lawsuit against the government. We work with campuses and with individual faculty and graduate student members, facilitating collaboration at many levels.

The leaders of the organizations will engage audience members in a discussion of collaborations in which we are engaged, encouraging campuses, organizations, and faculty member groups to work across boundaries to develop more effective resistance strategies.