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Free The Inquiry is Heterodox Academy’s home for essays, expert commentary, and conversations about open inquiry in the academy.

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Latest Issues

Even Free Speech Proponents Violate Their Principles. We Need Institutions That Can’t.

The debate over free speech on campus is usually framed as a persuasion problem: if only more students believed in free expression, the culture would protect it. A new study in Science Advances, by researchers at Stanford, Penn, Columbia, a...

4 days ago
16
1

How Zen Can Teach Scholars to Think Beyond Their Specialities


“A Literary Garden” by Zhou Wenju, Song Dynasty, 12th Century. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Beijing, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

For some years now, despite my being a former Roman Catholic and a sort of Burkean c...

5 days ago
12
1

Bans on “Divisive Concepts” Risk Stifling Speech

This article was originally published at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal on July 20th, 2026.


The growing (though not unanimous) acknowledgement that academia has lost public trust may be increasingly uncontroversial....

6 days ago
16
1

The Weekly: UC speaks on SAT in admissions; political appointees proposed to have final say on federal grants

In open inquiry news this week, the University of California sets a plan to reevaluate the use of SAT scores in admissions, as requested by thousands of faculty; a newly proposed rule from Washington gives political appointees final say in...

9 days ago
12

The Principle of Institutional Neutrality Is What Matters, Not the Name

Is institutional neutrality a one-size-fits-all policy? Some institutions say no, opting instead for policies and principles that bolster open inquiry, but sans “neutrality” in the name. Tufts University is one such institution, having embr...

11 days ago
13

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Authors

The writers behind this newsletter.

  • Heterodox Academy

    Free The Inquiry, by Heterodox Academy, is devoted to the defense and advancement of open inquiry in higher education.

  • Nicole Barbaro Simovski, Ph.D.

    A social scientist interested in books, education, and science. Director of Communications at Heterodox Academy.

  • Joseph (Jake) Klein

    Joseph (Jake) Klein is a writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of The Black Sheep. He is also the author of Redefining Racism: How Racism Became "Power + Prejudice." Follow him on X @josephjakeklein.

  • Erin B. Shaw

    Erin B. Shaw is a Research Associate at HxA. Her background is in education research and survey methods.

  • Athena Aktipis PhD

    Director of the Cooperative Futures Institute and Psychology Professor at Arizona State University. I study cooperation across systems, from cells to societies. Ranked in top 1% of scientists, according to Elsevier's standardized citation database.

  • Michael Regnier

    Michael Regnier is Heterodox Academy's Executive Director. A former charter school founder and K-12 education advocate, he's a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago.

  • John Tomasi

    John Tomasi, the President of Heterodox Academy, is a political philosopher who earned his graduate degrees at Oxford University. A long-time professor at Brown, he has also held teaching and research positions at Princeton, Stanford, and Harvard.

  • Michael Jindra

    Cultural Anthropologist affiliated with Boston U, work on diversity and culture, social problems and the tensions around these questions. Challenging groupthink in academia.

  • Dylan Selterman

    Scientist. Researcher. Social Psychologist. Writer. Podcaster. Heterodox. Opinions my own. https://www.dylanselterman.com/

  • Ashley Rubin

    I'm a social scientist

  • Shiri Spitz Siddiqi

    Shiri Spitz Siddiqi is a Senior Researcher at Heterodox Academy. She is a social psychologist with expertise on political bias, affective polarization, and moral judgment.

  • McKay Stangler

    Kansan.

  • Team Wendell

    Health Care Un-Covered Team

  • Justin McBrayer

    Justin McBrayer is an academic philosopher and the Director of University Partnerships at Heterodox Academy.

  • Phong P. Truong

    Phong P. Truong is a Resource Developer at Heterodox Academy.

  • Jonathan Thigpen

    Professor and Assistant Dean at Samford University

  • Andrea D Clements, PhD

    Dr. Andrea Clements is professor of psychology at East Tennessee State University and President of Uplift Appalachia. She facilitates collaboration among the faith, health, and science communities to address addictions and mental health challenges.

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