The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

Free Speech

UC's National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement $20K Non-Residential Fellowships

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


The Center is accepting applications until March 10; check out the details here. (I'm one of the Advisory Board members.) An excerpt:

Each year, the Center selects Fellows from a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds such as law, journalism, higher education, social science, technology and government. Fellows receive funding to conduct research that furthers the national conversation related to expression and democratic participation on college campuses including how to advance campus dialogue, safeguard academic freedom and further diversity and inclusion.

The Center welcomes candidates from all backgrounds to apply, and invites a wide range of innovative projects. As part of the University of California, the Center is committed to promoting diversity and equal opportunity in its education, services and administration, as well as research and creative activity. The Center focuses on projects that address current issues affecting students, staff, administrators and faculty and will have a direct impact on individuals and communities across campus, particularly those from vulnerable or marginalized communities….

This year we are particularly interested in issues that explore the connections between higher education and democracy such as:

  • Higher education's role in supporting democracy and democratic learning;
  • How to incorporate civic engagement and democratic learning into everyday life and learning on campus;
  • Understanding what motivates civic engagement among diverse campus groups.

We also welcome additional themes, topics and activities that fit within the Center's mission which may include (not an exhaustive list):

  • Effective methods to teach and build skills for dialogue across difference; encouraging robust conversation in and out of the classroom;
  • How best to safeguard academic freedom in response to the national and global climate including legislative assaults and other threats to the creation and transmission of knowledge;
  • The relationship between free speech, facts and falsehoods amid campaigns of disinformation and misinformation;
  • Exploring the interaction between diversity, inclusion and expression on campus;
  • Navigating values-based polarization and political partisanship in higher education;
  • The connection between international events and expression on campus….