JUNE 23, 2025, NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Heterodox Academy (HxA), a non-partisan, non-profit membership organization committed to improving institutions of higher education by advocating principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement announced the winners of their annual Open Inquiry Awards this evening at their conference held in New York City.

This year's Open Inquiry Award winners:

• Joseph Yi is receiving the 2025 Courage Award from Heterodox Academy for his unwavering commitment to truth and open inquiry, even in the face of significant social and professional risk.
• Anna Krylov is receiving the 2025 Leadership Award from Heterodox Academy for fierce advocacy of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and merit-based excellence in science.
• Western Michigan University is receiving the 2025 HxA Community Excellence Award from Heterodox Academy their work has focused on fostering open inquiry through intentional community-building and impactful programming.
• Abigail C. Saguy, is receiving the 2025 Teaching Excellence Award from Heterodox Academy for her innovative and courageous teaching of the Sociology of Gender course, where she fosters productive disagreement and encourages students to engage with a broad range of perspectives.
• Musa al-Gharbi is receiving the 2025 Exceptional Scholarship Award from Heterodox Academy for his robust and impactful academic and public scholarship advancing evidence-based, nuanced perspectives on some of the most contentious issues of our time, with a keen eye towards exemplifying the benefits of viewpoint diversity in academia.

“The 2025 Open Inquiry Award winners exemplify the courage, integrity, and commitment to pluralism that our academic communities so desperately need," said HxA president John Tomasi about the winners. "Their work reminds us that the pursuit of truth thrives when diverse viewpoints are heard and engaged with in good faith. At Heterodox Academy, we are proud to honor individuals and institutions who are not just speaking up for open inquiry, but actively building cultures that sustain it.”

Launched in 2018, the Open Inquiry Awards recognize those who do exemplary work promoting HxA’s core values in higher education — providing models that others can learn from, be inspired by, and emulate. 

About the Winners

Joseph Yi

Courage Award

For the person who has demonstrated consistent courage in pursuing truth, and embodies bravery in championing the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in the academy despite social and professional costs.

Joseph Yi is an Associate Professor at Hanyang University. His work focuses on diversity, civil society, and liberal democracy, especially in North America and East Asia.

He is receiving this award for his unwavering commitment to truth and open inquiry, even in the face of significant social and professional risk. Joseph has consistently demonstrated courage in addressing sensitive issues within East Asian studies, challenging both right- and left-wing censorship. His most prominent work centers on defending academic freedom amid the “comfort women” history debates.

As the coordinator of HxEast Asia, Joseph fosters open dialogue on topics such as South Korea’s National Security Law, NGOs in North Korea, LGBT-Christian relations in East Asia, alleged anti-Asian bias in U.S. college admissions, academic freedom in Hong Kong and among the overseas Chinese, and the relevance of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil’s detention for East Asia. Through 4–6 forums each semester, HxEast Asia creates spaces for civil discourse, helping to humanize individuals who speak out—even when doing so comes with personal cost.

His colleagues note that his receipt of this award is “an endorsement of his open intellectual attitude in a conformist academic culture.” One adds, “Even when confronted by harsh criticism, inflammatory rhetoric, and threats from anti-Japanese nationalist groups who aim to silence difficult conversations, Dr. Yi remains calm, respectful, and unfailingly winsome. Rather than retreating into defensiveness or antagonism, he actively engages even his sharpest critics in constructive dialogue, patiently opening spaces for understanding and thoughtful disagreement.”

Anna Krylov

Leadership Award 

For the person who has most effectively championed the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in the academy and beyond.

Anna Krylov is the USC Associates Chair in Natural Sciences and Professor of Chemistry at University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the theoretical studies of electronic structure and spectroscopy of open-shell and electronically excited species, and has published over 300 scholarly papers.

Anna is a fierce advocate for open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and merit-based excellence in science. In this area, she has published many scholarly articles and popular essays on the topic of politicization of science, including the "In Defense of Merit in Science" paper. She is the moderator of the Heterodox STEM community, a rich and active forum for the discussion of pressing issues in STEM disciplines that are threatening the free inquiry and exchange of ideas crucial to the scientific enterprise. Anna was also a key organizer for a major event hosted at USC focused on censorship in the sciences that attracted hundreds of attendees and tens of thousands of views of content online. She is also an active participant in the USC HxA Campus Community. 

In April of this year, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious honor for her outsized contributions to the world of ideas. In her acceptance letter, she maintained her commitment to scientific excellence noting that, “Together, we can defend the principles of free inquiry against political attacks from both sides of the political spectrum. Together, we can work with government officials to direct their actions towards the betterment of our institutions rather than to their destruction.”

Western Michigan University Campus Community

HxA Community Excellence

For the Heterodox Community or HxA Campus Community that has done the most to advance or sustain open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in their discipline, academic setting, region, or campus.

The Heterodox Academy Campus Community at Western Michigan University (WMU) is the largest in the nation, uniting 80 active faculty, staff, and administrators across a range of disciplines and backgrounds. Led by Jennifer Townsend, Jeff Breneman, and Dave Paul, their work has focused on fostering open inquiry through intentional community-building and impactful programming.

They are receiving the Community Excellence Open Inquiry Award for building a sustainable, cross-functional coalition that champions open inquiry at scale. Their innovative leadership model—led jointly by a senior administrator, a tenured faculty member, and a staff instructor—has been central to securing deep institutional buy-in and fostering strategic collaboration across campus. Through the We Talk initiative, the WMU community has hosted high-profile events that model civil discourse and celebrate ideological diversity, providing a national model for constructive dialogue in higher education. WMU’s HxA Campus Community played a critical role in influencing the President’s Cabinet to adopt a “Stewardship of the Institutional Voice” policy this past year to promote free expression for members of the campus community.

One member of the WMU Campus Community notes, “Through intentional leadership, rigorous programming, campus-wide engagement, and impact-driven evaluation, the WMU HxA Campus Community has not only grown in size—it has transformed the culture of its institution.”

Abigail C. Saguy

Teaching Excellence

For the educator who has most effectively integrated open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, or constructive disagreement into the classroom and/or curriculum.

Abigail Saguy is a professor of sociology at UCLA. Her work has focused on gender, sexuality, and the cultural and political framing of bodies and identities.

She is receiving the Teaching Excellence Open Inquiry Award for her innovative and courageous teaching of the Sociology of Gender course, where she fosters productive disagreement and encourages students to engage with a broad range of perspectives. Previously, Saguy co-designed and team-taught for over a decade an interdisciplinary course, Sex: From Biology to Gendered Society, with colleagues from biology, genetics, and psychology—bridging scientific and sociological worldviews. These experiences, combined with her training through the UCLA Dialogue Across Differences fellowship, informed her approach to teaching controversial topics with nuance and integrity.

Her colleagues note, “In response to growing activism and ideological rigidity among students, many instructors no longer want to teach the Sociology of Gender. They fear saying the ‘wrong thing’ and being cancelled. Saguy has refused to be cowed… she decided instead to lean into the discomfort and make it part of the curriculum.”

Musa al-Gharbi

Exceptional Scholarship

For the academic who, through research or another form of scholarship, has best advanced knowledge of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, or constructive disagreement.

Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist and assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His work explores how we talk about, think about, and produce a shared understanding of social phenomena including inequality, social movements, identity, extremism, policing, national security, foreign policy and domestic U.S. political contests.

Musa is receiving the Exceptional Scholarship Open Inquiry Award for his robust and impactful academic and public scholarship advancing evidence-based, nuanced perspectives on some of the most contentious issues of our time, with a keen eye towards exemplifying the benefits of viewpoint diversity in academia. His first book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, examines the history and political economy of the knowledge professions from the interwar period through the present. As a regular contributor to HxA and the border national media, his work has been indispensable in advancing the mission of HxA, showcasing the importance of viewpoint diversity in the academy, and promoting free inquiry and the exchange of ideas both publicly and in the classroom.

HxA founder and longtime supporter of Musa and his work, Jonathan Haidt said, “When the history of our era is written and the story is told of how America's epistemic institutions lost their way and lost the trust of the public, Musa Al-Gharbi will emerge as a hero. He joined the HxA team while still a grad student and quickly became our deepest — and most heterodox — scholar. His writings on intellectual history are among the most profound essays we've ever published. If universities are to regain trust and excellence, Musa's work should be the foundation of reform.”