Heterodox Academy

We are a politically diverse group of more than 1,800 professors and graduate students who have come together to improve the quality of research and education in universities by increasing viewpoint diversity, mutual understanding, and constructive disagreement.

WHAT IS VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY? WATCH OUR VIDEO.

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How Does HxA Help?

We offer a range of resources designed to cultivate reasoned conversations, deeper empathy, the ability to see beyond one’s own perspective, and a capacity for meaningful engagement with diverse others. We partner with professors, administrators, and students to depolarize college campuses and classrooms.

Key Tools:

An interactive, psychology-based platform designed to depolarize campuses and foster mutual understanding across differences.

A self-report tool you can use to assess which students are feeling intimidated to speak up about which topics and why.

Rates America’s top 200 universities according to the degree of viewpoint diversity you can expect to find on campus.

LATEST BLOG POSTS

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- HxA Open Mind Award Winner: Lindsay Shepherd
  Some read about censorship and orthodoxy on campus and become champions of viewpoint diversity. Others do so having personally experienced censorship and orthodoxy, and endured their harsh effects. In the fall of 2017, Shepherd was a 22-year-old graduate student pursuing her M.A. in Cultural Analysis and Social Theory at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) in Ontario. She was also a teaching assistant for a course titled Canadian Communication in Context. Shepherd looked forward to challenging her students to see various sides of an issue. In class, she screened several minutes of a TVOntario program in which University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson questioned the use of gender-neutral pronouns. Little did she know the extent to which this simple decision would impact her academic career. Shepherd was summoned by school officials for violating WLU’s Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy. She surreptitiously recorded the meeting where senior members of her department criticized her teaching and choice of TV clip. She responded by pointing out that the mission of higher education is the pursuit of truth and, thus, the institution itself is meant to expose students to multiple perspectives. (Listen to the recording for yourself online). When Shepherd made the recording public, the public was shocked, and perhaps because of that public reaction, ultimately, no punishment was issued. “In fact,” read an independent fact-finding report,“the meeting never should have happened at all. No formal complaint, nor informal concern relative to a Laurier policy, was registered about the screening of the video.” Both the president of the university and the administrator from the meeting issued apologies to Lindsay. From the professor’s apology: “…this entire occasion, and hearing from so many with passionate views on this issue from across the political spectrum, has made me seriously rethink some of the positions I took in the meeting. …Maybe we ought to strive to reach across all of our multiple divisions to find points where we can discuss such issues, air multiple perspectives, and embrace the diversity of thought.” The president’s apology included this key passage, removing all culpability from Shepherd: “After listening to this recording, an apology is in order. The conversation I heard does not reflect the values and practices to which Laurier aspires. I am sorry it occurred in the way that it did and I regret the impact it had on Lindsay Shepherd.” Amidst the story of controversy that enveloped WLU, Shepherd did some deep soul searching. Many in her position would have resigned from the teaching assistant position, acquiescing or otherwise altering their educational strategies. But Shepherd did the opposite. She doubled down on her commitment to viewpoint diversity, refusing to change her methods. She embraced her new public platform, spotting an opportunity to push forward ideas involving constructive disagreement. She joined HxA as a Graduate Student Affiliate and formed the Laurier Society for Open Inquiry, through which she launched an “Unpopular Opinion” speaker series. Her Twitter account now has more than 60,000 followers. While Shepherd has already received high praise from a number of leading media outlets and prominent individuals, she can now add the HxA Open Mind Outstanding Graduate Student award as an accolade for her dedication to viewpoint diversity, constructive disagreement, and mutual understanding. On learning that she is receiving the award, Shepherd said, “It is an incredible honour to receive this prestigious award from Heterodox Academy. Heterodox Academy is so important because they genuinely seek to bridge divides and promote the rather simple idea that understanding one another and exploring different perspectives in a civil manner is key to enhancing our intellectual lives. I will keep working towards creating a culture of viewpoint diversity on campus, knowing that there is an amazing network of scholars and graduate students working towards the same goal.” We look forward to seeing all of her future initiatives. See the entire group of HxA Open Mind Award winners >> Opinions expressed are those of the author(s). Publication does not imply endorsement by Heterodox Academy or any of its members. We welcome your comments below. Feel free to challenge and disagree, but please try to model the sort of respectful and constructive criticism that makes viewpoint diversity most valuable. Comments that include obscenity or that sound like a tirade or screed are likely to be deleted.... Read more...
- HxA Open Mind Award Winner: Zach Wood
  Zachary Wood has advocated for viewpoint diversity in front of students, senators, and everyday citizens. But before he got to Washington and the TED stage, Wood was a student at Williams College. It was there that he first made a name for himself in the viewpoint diversity community and on campus. He served as president of Uncomfortable Learning, a student-run, alumni-funded organization that encourages students to understand and engage with often provocative and uncomfortable viewpoints. By bringing such speakers to campus, Wood sometimes earned the ire of his fellow students and a censoring response from the president of Williams. As a senior at Williams, Wood authored viewpoint diversity advocacy pieces in national publications, like The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, which led to an invitation he could not refuse. At the behest of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, Wood delivered the opening statement at its hearing,“Free Speech 101: The Assault on the First Amendment on College Campuses.” Wood, a self-described “liberal Democrat who supports many progressive causes,” used the experience to spotlight higher education as an opportunity for “students… to engage with people and ideas they vehemently disagree with.” Soon thereafter, Wood delivered a popular TED talk whose title says it all: “Why it’s worth listening to people you disagree with. “ As part of his remarks, he noted “… tuning out opposing viewpoints doesn’t make them go away, because millions of people agree with them. By engaging with controversial and offensive ideas, I believe that we can find common ground… Through engaging, I believe that we may reach a better understanding, a deeper understanding, of our own beliefs and preserve the ability to solve problems, which we can’t do if we don’t talk to each other and make an effort to be good listeners.” As the Robert L. Bartley Fellow at The Wall Street Journal, he recently completed his book, Uncensored: My Life and Uncomfortable Conversations at the Intersection of Black and White America, published by Dutton in 2018. “In Uncensored,” reads the publicity statement, “he reveals for the first time how he grew up poor and black in Washington, DC, in an environment where the only way to survive was to resist the urge to write people off because of their backgrounds and their perspectives.” Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. called the book a “remarkably honest memoir… a veritable bildungsroman, tracing his journey from high school scholarship student… to leader of the free speech movement at Williams College” while former Ambassador Susan Rice said, “His willingness to confront opposing views and engage ideological adversaries is brave and important at a time when political polarization is challenging our national strength.” In the fall, Wood will join The Atlantic as an Assistant Editor of the magazine. For his tireless work bringing viewpoint diversity to the Williams campus as well as to government influencers and a general audience, Wood is the recipient of our inaugural HxA Open Mind Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Student. In response to the recognition, Wood said “I was both thrilled and honored when I received the news. I admire the work that HxA has done to promote viewpoint diversity in higher education and it means a great deal to know that their intellectual community finds my advocacy worthy of such an honor.” Truly, the honor is ours. See the entire group of HxA Open Mind Award winners >> Opinions expressed are those of the author(s). Publication does not imply endorsement by Heterodox Academy or any of its members. We welcome your comments below. Feel free to challenge and disagree, but please try to model the sort of respectful and constructive criticism that makes viewpoint diversity most valuable. Comments that include obscenity or that sound like a tirade or screed are likely to be deleted. ... Read more...

The Value of Heterodoxy in the Academy

Featured members discuss our vital mission and the issues that arise in climates of orthodoxy on campus, including Leda Cosmides, Robert P. George, Jonathan Haidt, Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Steven Pinker, Richard Shweder, Nadine Strossen, and John Tooby.

“The whole educational process will be enriched and enlivened by a multiplicity of voices and perspectives.“
–Nadine Strossen

We welcome applications from academics, graduate students, and others.