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Stories
Dive into inspiring narratives from members of Heterodox Academy as they share their personal journeys and motivations for joining our community.
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Each story highlights the unique experiences and challenges faced by our members in their pursuit of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement.
How should social workers be trained in a polarized society? In this interview, Nafees Alam explains why viewpoint diversity belongs in social work education. He believes students must learn to understand and articulate perspectives they disagree with, not to win arguments, but to serve clients more effectively. From structured point-counterpoint discussions to resisting ideological grading, Nafees models a classroom culture grounded in intellectual humility and open inquiry.
Martha McCaughey, special assistant to the president at the University of Wyoming, leads a campus initiative on free expression, intellectual freedom, and constructive dialogue. Martha’s focus is rebuilding public trust by ensuring that the knowledge universities generate is credible and serves the public good, not special interests. She argues that we must re-teach the principles and purpose of the university. She spotlights practical needs on campus: bringing in experts on free expression and academic freedom and clarifying what rights students and faculty have, inside and outside class.
Should universities take public positions on political and social issues? As polarization intensifies and pressure mounts for institutions to speak, more universities are quietly rethinking the role of the institutional voice. In this member story, Jeff Breneman, Vice President for Government Relations and External Partnerships at Western Michigan University, explains why his campus adopted a formal institutional neutrality policy and how that decision reshaped campus dialogue.
In this interview, Steven G. Brint, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of California, Riverside, explains why public trust in college has slipped and what can actually rebuild it. We cover cost and ROI, administrative growth, regulatory burden, the campus speech climate, and whether degrees still signal real skills. Brint closes with moves leaders and faculty can make right now to start winning trust back.
How do you serve patients well when politics enters the room? Clinical psychologist Andrew Hartz explains how he saw clients misjudged for their beliefs, why that harms care, and how he turned to Heterodox Academy for community, editing support, and platforms that helped him speak thoughtfully in public. That momentum eventually led him to found the Open Therapy Institute, which focuses on documenting how sociopolitical forces affect mental health and on helping clinicians handle tense topics with skill.
How do you teach tough, controversial topics in a way that builds connection instead of conflict? Abigail Saguy, Professor of Sociology at UCLA, shares how she transformed her classroom by making dialogue across differences a core learning objective. Drawing on years of scholarship and her groundbreaking cross-disciplinary course on sex and gender, Saguy explains what happened when her students began showing up as “experts,” challenging her language and framing. Looking for community and tools to help, she discovered HxA and was introduced to Sway, an AI-powered platform designed to help students practice hard conversations.
Dr. Lindsay Hoffman reflects on the core challenges students face today: a lack of preparation for real dialogue, discomfort with disagreement, and underdeveloped habits of open inquiry. Drawing from her research and work with HxA, Dr. Hoffman shares how structured conversations, guided interventions, and intentional spaces can transform student learning — cultivating intellectual humility and curiosity across divides.
Philosophy professor and Heterodox Academy member Jennifer Townsend shares how she fosters civil discourse in the classroom — and why open inquiry and free speech are essential for real progress on campus. In this inspiring reflection, Jennifer explains how diverse viewpoints and respectful dialogue are changing the way students see the world — and each other.
Creativity is the engine of scientific discovery — but fear is killing it. Dorian Abbot, professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, explains how ideological pressure is causing scientists to self-censor, avoid controversial topics, and abandon the pursuit of truth. What’s at stake isn’t just academic freedom — it’s the future of science itself.
In this video, Matt Burgess, an Assistant Professor of Economics and a Presidential Fellow at the University of Wyoming, discusses academic freedom and his department's initiative to replace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) statements with "service statements." The core argument for this change is that positive contributions often highlighted in DEI statements — such as research on underserved communities or inclusive teaching — can be better integrated into research or teaching statements.
Cory Clark, Director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the prevalent fear of "cancel culture" and censorship among psychology professors. Her project aims to unite "enemy scholars" to resolve empirical disputes, expedite conflict resolution, and form consensus faster than current methods. She also seeks to reintegrate scholars who pursue controversial conclusions back into academia.
Brad Epperly, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Political Science at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan), discusses the differing threats to academic freedom in the U.S. and Canada. Epperly, having previously worked in the U.S., found the internal threats to academic freedom in Canada to be much stronger. He expresses concern over the Canadian academic landscape, where he observes many colleagues and administrators prioritizing personal agendas over the university's core mission of producing knowledge.
Eric Torres, a PhD candidate in education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, discusses how political polarization threatens academic freedom, leading to self-censorship among academics and fear among students to discuss controversial topics. His research at HxA's Segal Center as a Postdoctoral Fellow focuses on understanding how faculty in the social sciences understand intellectual freedom.
Rebecca Roiphe, a Trustee Professor of Law at New York Law School and former prosecutor, argues that education should challenge individuals to encounter discomfort and different viewpoints. Her research at HxA's Segal Center as a Faculty Fellow focuses on the recent history of law school educational curricula and practice, with particular emphasis on how legal education has fostered viewpoint homogeneity in the legal profession.
Renaud-Philippe Garner, an Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia (Okanagan), discusses threats to academic inquiry, categorizing them as "threats from below" from students disrupting classes and "threats from above" from superiors or administrative offices. He emphasizes that speaking truth to power can lead to social death, job loss, or damage to one's life's work. Garner concludes that organizations supporting those who think differently can help individuals overcome isolation and take action.
Colleen Eren, an Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at William Paterson University and Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center, discusses how monolithic thinking in academia threatens academic freedom, open inquiry, and viewpoint diversity, leading to a chilling effect on faculty and students. Her research at HxA's Segal Center as a Faculty Fellow focuses on describing and improving the processes by which institutions of higher education take public positions on controversial social and political issues.
Smriti Mehta is a postdoctoral scholar at the Berkeley School of Education at UC Berkeley and the co-chair of Berkeley's HxA Campus Community. Mehta discusses the threats to open inquiry in the academy, noting that many of the threats originate from the discipline of psychology. Mehta and her colleague decided to start an HxA Campus Community at Berkeley to push back against pressures that prevent people from pushing back and speaking out on policies that limit academic freedom.
Mary Kate Cary, 2024 HxA Leadership Award winner and Adjunct Professor at the University of Virginia, discusses the challenges to academic freedom and viewpoint diversity in higher education, highlighting how social media and the lack of experience in respectful disagreement among students contribute to these issues. Cary believes HxA can foster viewpoint diversity, open inquiry, and constructive disagreement by uniting various campus groups and garnering support from administration and alumni.
Alexandra Lysova is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University. Lysova was forced to leave Russia after Vladimir Putin came to power due to threats and limitations on her freedom. This experience has given her a heightened appreciation for democratic values and has made her sensitive to limitations on academic freedom and freedom of expression in countries such as Canada and the U.S. Lysova has received the 2023 Leadership Award from HxA for her persistent efforts to protect academic freedom.