Protecting Scholars’ Public Engagement

Scholars Strategy Network recognizes that supporting academics’ public engagement means more than just making sure scholars are trained in communication skills or given access to policy-informing opportunities. Our members have valid concerns and important questions about what’s at stake when they engage publicly, and how they might mitigate risk or respond to a challenge of their speech, curriculum, or research agenda. 

SSN is committed to ensuring all who work with us are aware of the constellation of organizations offering resources and support for scholars exercising their right to academic freedom. The information on this page does not represent SSN’s endorsement of or formal partnership with any group or project listed, nor does it present an exhaustive accounting of this growing ecosystem; rather, we aim to provide publicly engaged scholars with the means to explore available supports and easily connect with support providers when they so choose. 

The Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to uphold the principles of academic freedom for faculty members at colleges and universities in the United States. The AFA, in appropriate circumstances, provides aid for legal support to members whose constitutional, statutory, contractual, or other legally protected rights relating to academic freedom have been violated or are under threat.

What It Does:

• Produces press releases, public letters, and guidance statements meant to defend faculty members’ freedom of thought and expression in their work as researchers and writers or in their lives as citizens, within established ethical and legal bounds; freedom to design courses and conduct classes using reasonable pedagogical judgment; and freedom from ideological tests, affirmations, and oaths.
• Raises funds to support litigation for faculty whose academic freedom is threatened by institutions’ or officials’ violations of constitutional, statutory, contractual, or school-based rights.

Who It Is:

Academic Committee:

• Lucas E. Morel, Washington and Lee University (Chair)
• Margaret S. Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Donald Downs, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Robert P. George, Princeton University
• Janet Halley, Harvard Law School
• Anna Krylov, University of Southern California
• David M. Rabban, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
• Abigail Thompson, University of California, Davis
• Keith E. Whittington, Yale Law School

How to Contact:

https://academicfreedom.org/contact/

A project of the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ Institute for Democracy and Higher Education and the Sustained Dialogue Institute, the Help Desk offers timely advice—troubleshooting—to campus educators and practitioners facing difficult, confounding, new, frightening, nasty, threatening, and other conflicts and challenging conversations that may have come up in the classroom, in administrative decision-making, in co-curricular programming, and even when engaging communities off campus.

What It Does:

• Fields inquiries about how to handle on- and off-campus conflict and responds with tailored support from a nine-member team of scholars and practitioners.

Who It Is:

https://www.aacu.org/initiatives/institute-for-democracy-and-higher-education/helpdesk/consulting-practitioners-and-scholars-on-conflict-and-conversation

How to Contact:

Fill out a Help Desk Inquiry Form

A project of the American Association of University Professors, the Center is committed to preserving and expanding conditions that make it possible to work, teach, learn, create, and share knowledge in ways that promote the common good. The Center serves as a resource and knowledge hub for all people—including faculty, students, campus workers, alumni, administrators, trustees, parents, journalists, policymakers, and business leaders—seeking to build a flourishing higher education system, rooted in institutional autonomy, workplace democracy, and freedom from coercion and external interference.

What It Does:

• Creates practical resources and builds strategic partnerships for those engaged in defending academic freedom
• Produces original research that can serve as the evidentiary basis for this work
• Communicates the value of academic freedom and institutional autonomy to wide audiences

Who It Is:

• Isaac Kamola, Trinity College
• Kate Taylor

How to Contact:

Email [email protected] or [email protected]

FFR educates and supports faculty and administrators about the causes and consequences of right-wing attacks on faculty, while providing advice about how to effectively respond to targeted harassment.

What It Does:

• Curates resources and best practice lists for higher education workers under attack or at risk of being under attack from targeted harassment and administrators at their institutions.
• Monitors the handful of media platforms and political organizations most responsible for generating the targeted harassment of faculty and actively reaches out to affected scholars to provide support.

Who It Is:

• Isaac Kamola, Trinity College (Founder & Director)
• Heather Steffen, Georgetown University
• Rana Jaleel, University of California, Davis
• Katie Rodger, University of California, Davis

PEN America is dedicated to raising awareness for the protection of free expression through the advancement of literature and human rights. It is mainly known for supporting authors with grants, fellowships, awards, workshops, and quality public programming. PEN’s programming on Campus Free Speech, Educational Censorship, and Online Abuse & Digital Safety all provide resources that can be useful to college and university faculty, researchers, staff, and administrators.

What It Does:

• Offers a Campus Free Speech Guide and Campus For All workshops that aim to equip the whole college and university community with tools and best practices for handling challenges to the process of balancing speech protections with commitments to higher ed access.
• Tracks U.S. legislation that mandates educational gag orders and organizes pushback to anti-free speech policies.
• Facilitates workshops and houses resources on combating online harassment.

This page is a one-stop hub designed to help faculty quickly locate the support they need if they experience online attacks and harassment.

What It Does:

The database links to resources that are grouped by audience and focus:

• Faculty-Intended Resources–guides and toolkits created specifically for faculty members.
• Non-Faculty Intended Resources–materials built for journalists, activists, or other professionals that faculty can still adapt.
• Profession-Agnostic Resources–broadly applicable advice on digital safety, mental health, and crisis response.
• High-Impact Resources–comprehensive links that cover multiple support areas in one place.
• Videos–short talks and workshops offering actionable tips.
• Tools & Services–practical privacy and security tools (e.g., opt-out databases, password managers).
• Legal Resources–know-your-rights guides and referral information for legal assistance.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest a resource, please contact SSN Managing Director Lizzy Ghedi-Ehrlich at [email protected].