Coinciding with Heterodox Academy’s Open Mind Conference in June 2018, HxA honored individuals, groups, and institutions doing exemplary work with the inaugural Open Inquiry Awards. 

HxA is committed to identifying and facilitating ways to overcome the challenges facing higher education today and we believe one of the best ways to do that is by recognizing those who have been doing an outstanding job. The award recipients embody HxA’s mission — promoting open inquiry, viewpoint diversity and constructive disagreement — and are models that others can learn from, be inspired by, and emulate. 

Recipients were nominated by members of HxA and independently reviewed by members of HxA’s Open Inquiry Awards Committee, who then developed a short list of up to three candidates for each category. The short lists were presented to HxA’s executive team and Board of Directors — all of whom then voted to select the winner for each award.

The award categories and winners were as follows:

Institutional Excellence: The University of Chicago

Leadership: Robert P. George, Princeton University & Cornel West, Harvard University

Courage: Alice Dreger

Exceptional Scholarship: Tenelle Porter, University of California, Davis & Karina Schumann, University of Pittsburgh

Outstanding Graduate Student: Lindsay Shepherd, Wilfrid Laurier University 

Outstanding Undergraduate Student: Zachary Wood, Williams College

Outstanding Student Group: BridgeUSA