After Trump's funding cuts, Middle Eastern Studies programmes at US colleges face uncertain future

For the past 10 years, Taylor Stone, a PhD student at Indiana University, has studied the Middle East in each of these US states, hopping from college to college to realise her dream of researching the region. However, now, following US President Trump’s proposed Title VI cuts, Taylor is worried that her ten-year-long journey is about to grind to an abrupt halt. 

“Will I get to finish the fall semester? Will I get to start at all?” Taylor shares with The New Arab. “I don’t know.”

Struggling to pay for her education, Taylor repeatedly switched from college to college for 10 years, relocating to different places across the US, to finish her bachelor’s degree. Now, finally a PhD student, she still struggles to make ends meet, working multiple part-time jobs along with her education.

But this year, Taylor was finally awarded the Foreign Languages and Area Studies fellowship, a Title VI grant, to help fund her education in Kurdish Studies. However, when the letter came in, it said that Taylor may not receive her awarded funding at all if Trump’s proposed cuts go into effect. 

In May, the Trump Administration released its 2026 budget proposal, which included a slew of cuts to the Department of Education. The administration proposed to slash more than $2 billion from higher education programmes, including Title VI of the Higher Education Act, which supports International Education and Foreign Language through programmes such as Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships.

Like Taylor, foreign language students from over 100 institutions of higher education in the US rely on FLAS, lying at the very heart of many Middle East Centres. Now, these students are set to lose their tuition funding next academic year if Trump’s proposed cuts to Title VI of the Higher Education Act go into effect. 

Middle East Centres, operated as Title VI National Resource Centres at leading US universities, are now feeling the threat to their centres from the cuts, anticipating that their public lectures, K-12 outreach, and speaker workshops about the Middle East will be cut down. Some centre directors have now paused event planning until they secure additional funding.

But the cuts don’t just affect academics and students. With fewer programmes about the Middle East, Americans from all walks of life, from K-12 school kids to the average American taxpayer, face a loss in accessible knowledge on the region.

Students in jeopardy

With Title VI now in danger, foreign language students specialising in the Middle East now face significant hurdles to learn understudied languages like Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu. Some graduate students may also have to end their education altogether.  

Graduate students seeking to study less commonly taught languages, like Arabic, flock en masse to universities with Title VI National Resource Centres (NRCs), which often offer FLAS as well. While only 3% of American higher education institutions have NRCs, 59% of all US graduates studying these uncommon languages are at these institutions.

Taylor was one of these students. She came to Indiana University, one of the few American universities offering Kurdish, solely so she could learn Kurdish.

“I only came to IU because I could learn Kurdish,” said Taylor. “It’s very important to me.”

Taylor dreams of someday producing meaningful research in Kurdish Studies, but working 20 hours a week besides her education to independently fund her degree was proving very difficult. 

“FLAS was my relief plan,” she explained. “I can continue to make good progress on my classes, my coursework, and also have some time to rest.”

This summer, Taylor is uncertain whether she can continue her education this fall. She and her peers now face a “weird gamble.” Can they sit still, hoping FLAS survives, allowing them to finish their degrees? Or do they need to start searching for backup jobs, in case FLAS falls through? 

“No one has any answers, and it feels like a mess,” said Taylor. “We’re all very stressed about this.”

At Indiana University alone, 61 FLAS fellows are set to lose funding. Approximately 13% of those fellows are Middle East fellows, from the Centre for the Study of the Middle East. 

Besides FLAS, students also rely on graduate assistantships at the centres to fund their education. However, since the proposed cuts, the interview process for graduate assistantships has also paused, said Taylor, further causing students panic.

These concerns contribute to a broader “moment of anxiety” for students in Middle Eastern Studies right now, in which international students in particular are vulnerable. Many of them have stayed back this summer in particular, due to concerns about their VISAs, said Zachary Lockman, an NYU Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.

Under FLAS, FLAS recipients’ fellowship status at college may also grant them university health insurance benefits. Now, however, some fellows at Indiana University, like Claire Jacobson, are worried about losing it.

While Claire, from the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, previously never worried much about her medical bills, now, her greatest worry is about losing insurance — especially this past year, as she has been suffering from more health issues.

“There are some medications that I can’t afford not to have,” Claire shared with The New Arab. “So even if I don’t have health insurance, I will just have to figure a way out.”

With the insurance, students' medical bills, often thousands of dollars, are reduced to $10-15. Now, to pay their medical bills, students are considering taking up full-time jobs, in addition to their education.

“I’m writing a dissertation. I’ll be writing it much more slowly, but at least I won’t die,” Claire added. 

Programming interrupted

Without funding for Title VI, Middle Eastern Studies National Resource Centres, which typically host dozens of panels, debates, lectures, and talks every year, open to the public, about the Middle East, have had their typical event schedule interrupted, expecting drastic reductions in the number of events they can host in future years.

“It would be a very significant cut in enacting programming and activities,” said Mohamad Bazzi, the director of the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies Center at New York University.

While the Kevorkian Center typically hosts about 70 events annually, with the proposed cuts, they now expect a three-fourths cut in annual events, totalling 15-20 events annually starting next academic year if the proposed cuts go through, said Mohamad.

Last year, the Kevorkian Center hosted dozens of events, including book talks, lecture series, and panels for their students, faculty, and the local community in Manhattan, New York.

Indiana University Bloomington’s Title VI Middle East centre, the Center for the Study of the Middle East, expects the number of programmes it can host to go down as well, according to Feisal Istrabadi, the centre’s director.

Particularly, the centres face trouble in inviting speakers for their events, especially non-faculty guest speakers. 

“Effectively, I might be able to get university funds somewhere for one or two speakers a year, but certainly nothing like the 20-some-odd that we support,” Feisal told The New Arab.  

While numerous centres would have typically already started inviting speakers for upcoming events, several centres, including the centre at Indiana University, have paused their invitations, unsure if they will receive funding or not, said Feisal. 

While the centres are still uncertain about the future, to survive, they are sticking to cutting back their programming and outreach efforts for now, relying on fewer experts in future public panels and discussions.

“My ability to have a wide range of expertise will be cut off,” Feisal added. “Not only the range of views for my students, but for the larger community.”

Farhana Sabeeha is a freelance writer and an undergraduate journalism student at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute