In photo from L-R: James Shanahan, Rebecca Roiphe, Roy Peled, Colleen Eren, and Eric Torres

APRIL 17, 2024, NEW YORK CITY, NY – Heterodox Academy is pleased to announce the incoming research fellows to its Segal Center for Academic Pluralism for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Segal Center for Academic Pluralism is the ideas laboratory of Heterodox Academy. Its mission is to generate, test, criticize, and spread among university leaders, academics, cultural commentators, politicians, and the general public ideas about the ideals of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in higher education. Its researchers engage public discourse and policy debates about the purposes and workings of higher education.

The five accomplished fellows — James Shanahan, Rebecca Roiphe, Roy Peled, Colleen Eren, and Eric Torres — will be visiting scholars at The Segal Center during the 2024-25 academic year. The multidisciplinary group of fellows spans media, law, sociology, and education bringing a wide array of viewpoints and experience to the planned interdisciplinary research at the intersection of intellectual pluralism and their respective fields of expertise.

"I am delighted to welcome our new cohort of visiting fellows to the Segal Center this fall. Each fellow brings unique expertise and perspectives that will greatly enrich our exploration of the value and prospects for open inquiry in higher education," said Alex Arnold, Director of Research at the Segal Center. "Collectively, they are poised to help HxA elevate our colleges and universities into dynamic engines of knowledge, understanding, and progress."

Heterodox Academy recently announced a pledge of $5 million from the Mike and Sofia Segal Foundation to enable HxA to expand its research and policy projects, and deepen its impact on colleges and universities. The gift also included the renaming of the research center, opened last year, to The Mike and Sofia Segal Center for Academic Pluralism.

Learn More About the Fellows

James Shanahan is Professor in the Media School of Indiana University, Bloomington and from 2015-2021 the Media School’s Founding Dean. He is also a member of the Observatory on Social Media and investigates the effects of mass media on individuals and societies. His research at the Segal Center as a Faculty Fellow will focus on further developing and applying the Willingness to Self-Censor scale, especially in the context of journalism education.

Rebecca Roiphe is Trustee Professor of Law at New York Law School, where she researches the history and ethics of the legal profession. She clerked for the First Circuit US Court of Appeals and was a prosecutor in Manhattan. Her research at the Segal Center as a Faculty Fellow will focus 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.

Roy Peled is Associate Professor at the Haim Striks School of Law at the College of Management Academic Studies, where he researches constitutional and administrative law, public discourse and opinion, and free expression. His research at the Segal Center as a Faculty Fellow will focus on questions about how best to reconcile respect for the activist impulse of students with the university’s mission as an academic institution aimed at inquiry.

Colleen Eren is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at William Paterson University, where she also directs the Criminology and Criminal Justice Program. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center, and has researched white-collar crime, the death penalty, and criminal justice reform social movements. Her research at the Segal Center as a Faculty Fellow will focus on describing and improving the processes by which institutions of higher education take public positions on controversial social and political issues.

Eric Torres is a PhD candidate in education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, where he researches issues in educational and developmental psychology. His research at the Segal Center as a Postdoctoral Fellow will focus on understanding how faculty in the social sciences understand intellectual freedom.