Project Lead: Irshad Manji, Founder, Moral Courage ED | HxK12 Education Community

Let Grow, the national nonprofit that advocates independent thinking and emotional resilience in young people, has received a Flexible Funding Opportunity grant to advance its work in K-12 schools. 

The “Diversity Without Division” campaign will introduce school leaders across America to Moral Courage ED, a project of Let Grow that equips students (and their teachers!) to hear, not fear, different perspectives. Moral Courage ED is already living up to its mission by cultivating allies as ideologically diverse as Facing History and Ourselves and the Cato Institute.

With this grant, Let Grow will distribute to 2,000 school leaders a copy of Don’t Label Me: How to Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars. Written by Moral Courage ED founder and Oxford University fellow Irshad Manji, Don’t Label Me is the inspiration behind several professional development tools, including a signature online course, that educators are increasingly adopting.

If you’re a K-12 leader, or know someone who is, request the book that Jonathan Hait calls “humble, loving, humane” and Chris Rock calls “genius.”

Project Lead: Martin Drapeau, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, McGill University |  HxCanada Community

This nation-wide, multi-faceted initiative in support of heterodoxy in Canada led by Martin Drapeau will 1) conduct surveys of university students to assess campus climate, with a focus on freedom of expression and viewpoint diversity; 2) design a website for Canadian academics and students to promote viewpoint diversity, respect for others, and constructive dialogue; 3) devise a concept map and conduct a scoping review; and 4) host the first Canadian conference on viewpoint diversity in academia on April 22, 2022, at McGill University in Montreal and virtually. 

Drapeau is working with several fellow HxA members across Canada to complete this project, including HxCanada Community Moderator Andy Sellwood, Vancouver Community College; Samuel Veissières, McGill University; Robert Edward Whitley, McGill University; Annett Korner, McGill University; Raúl Colón, University of Ottawa; Melanie Soderstrom, University of Manitoba; student Maizy Thorvaldson, University of British Columbia; and student Steve Han, University of Toronto.

Project Leads: Jane Fenton, Reader and Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching, School of Education and Social Work, University of Dundee, and Mark Smith, Professor of Social Work, School of Education and Social Work, University of Dundee | HxSociology Community

The issue of free speech is a major contemporary academic and cultural issue, which Jane Fenton and Mark Smith will explore in this piece of research They are interested in how social work students understand, and might respond to, particular controversial issues in the course of their studies.

Fenton and Smith will use their FFO grant to administer Heterodox Academy’s Campus Expression Survey and to host an event later in the spring to share their findings. Through this research and event, they hope to foster discussion about HxA’s three principles: open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement. 

Project Lead: Robinder Bedi, Associate Professor, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, University of British Columbia | HxCanada and HxPsychology Communities

Robinder Bedi received an FFO grant to create a speaker series in the Counselling Psychology Program Area at the University of British Columbia designed to counter the growing reluctance to openly discuss controversial topics or admit willingness to learn about unpopular viewpoints. True to the title of the speaker’s series (Confronting Hegemonic Ideas), each speaker provides a heterodox perspective relevant to the field of counselling psychology. More specifically, the project sets out to:

• Increase awareness of heterodox viewpoints and inconvenient facts/findings that do not conform to hegemonic narratives and dominant perspectives in counseling psychology, in order to promote critical thinking.

• Model intellectual humility and respectful engagement with speakers who present controversial/unconventional perspectives.

• Create changes in academic culture and traditions consistent with the values of Heterodox Academy that result in (a) the enhancement of rigor for scholarship and (b) an improvement in the ability of trainee counselors/psychologists to serve those who differ from them, including with respect to political and ideological diversity.

View the recording for the March 17 discussion “What is Racial Equality?” featuring Glenn C. Loury, Merton P. Stolz Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of Economics, Brown University.

Project Lead: Jeffrey Breneman, Vice President for Government Relations, Western Michigan University | HxHigher Ed Leadership Community

Jeffrey Breneman, Vice President for Government Relations at Western Michigan University, received a Flexible Funding Opportunity grant to engage campus and the Kalamazoo regional community in interactive, educational opportunities that promote civil discourse, viewpoint diversity, and free speech rights and responsibilities through the We Talk initiative he and others founded in late 2019. More than 1,000 campus and community members have participated in this grassroots movement, which is committed to the idea that free speech and social justice can be reconciled and has the support of WMU students, faculty, staff, and campus and community leaders. 

We Talk programming is designed to shape a vision of what people can achieve by actively engaging with others with diverse backgrounds, interests, and viewpoints through learning/engagement opportunities, resources, and tools. Activities include a 2-day campus/community visit by a nationally recognized author in fall and spring semesters, monthly free speech cafés featuring campus and community panelists, and a conversational exercise that promotes connection and compassion—Moving Conversations @ WMU. Most events are recorded by student videographers, which are published on YouTube and promoted as resources available to campus and the public to support learning in the classroom, workplace and at home. 

Project Lead: Kelly Anthony, University of Waterloo | HxCanada

Health policies demand solid empirical evidence from high-quality research, thoughtful and ongoing discussion, knowledge sharing, and consideration of diverse perspectives. Some issues become so polarizing that open discussion, even of solid research findings, becomes a challenge. Academics working in controversial or sensitive topic areas often find it difficult to contribute to the scientific discourse when their research does not fully align with a prevailing perspective/viewpoint. Even passive dismissal of diverse, evidence-based perspectives runs counter to the foundational value of academic freedom. Further, it limits our ability to allow for a fully informed understanding of certain research areas.

The need to hear a range of expert perspectives on illicit substance use and/or addiction (e.g., ‘safe supply’, decriminalization, or legalization) is key to developing policies that can address their social, health, and economic consequences. As major drug law policy changes are being considered and implemented in Canada, the US, and elsewhere, policy makers, healthcare professionals, and politicians need access to all relevant research. This panel was created to allow for the full and transparent consideration of challenges, possible unintended consequences, and concerns as we consider drug policy reforms. Policies must be evidence-based and effective, and they must be in the best interests of those who continue to suffer from the ravages of drug addiction.

This event, ‘‘Moving Forward by Slowing Down: Considering Diverse Perspectives on Drug Decriminalization and Legalization,” will showcase the learnings from the Portuguese National Strategy, which involved a massive shift from a focus on law enforcement to prioritizing addiction treatment and prevention. Immediately following this discussion, several Canadian addictions researchers and clinicians will share their research and experiences. We hope to provide a more complex and nuanced view of what options of decriminalization, medicalization and legalization of substances such as crack cocaine and heroin might look like in a North American context. This event takes place June 7, 1-3:30 p.m. ET, and is free and open to the public. Registration required.

Project Lead: Siddhartha Roy, Research Scientist, Virginia Tech | HxEnvironmental Engineering and Science (HxEES)

Why can’t scientific journals be honest about how much gets through peer-review that shouldn’t? Why are some papers retracted following negative publicity on social media but other papers with demonstrably bad science remain untouched? Can valuing and promoting viewpoint diversity help correct the scientific record?

Siddhartha Roy, HxEES Moderator, spoke with Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, on research integrity, the self-correcting (?) nature of science, and the scientific and political reasons guiding or obstructing journal retractions in our COVID-19 era. This event took place on May 25 at 1p.m. ET. 

Connect with Sid and Ivan on Twitter: @siddharthaxroy and @ivanoransky

Project Lead: Nicola Watson, Lecturer, Robert Gordon University | HxCommunication

A 4 day summer symposium, aimed at emerging and recent graduates alongside those in academia and the creative industries. There are activities, discussions and workshops planned that help to encourage open inquiry into barriers faced in creative freedom. Starting a wider discussion about the flexibility and innovation of teaching practice in this industry. Are we held back by conventional teaching methods and delivery of creativity? Can we find new ways of engaging those whose ideas differ from the orthodoxy and current ‘gatekeepers’ of what constitutes creative expression? How do we support them?

Exploring new pathways that can underpin a creative process, alongside talks on freedom within creative expression, while introducing new tools for creative critical thinking.

The thread throughout the symposium will echo HxA’s mission and message that ‘great minds don’t always think alike, so we need to think together.’ This event takes place in Aberdeen, set in the historic Category B-listed Bon Accord Baths – one of the few remaining pools of its type in the UK, with impressive Art Deco features – surely an inspiring space for creative ideas and thoughts!

Connect with Nicola on Substack and Instagram: @miss_niw

Project Lead: Lisa Potter, Head of School, Seven Acres Montessori | HxK-12 Community

Potter received a grant to host a fireside chat event with author Irshad Manji and a subsequent staff training based on Manji’s “Diversity Without Division” online course. The Fireside Chat expanded exposure and dialogue around Seven Acres Montessori’s value of diversity of thought as well as the HxA mission. The event attracted a broad group of attendees from the local community and beyond, including Seven Acres parents, staff, and leaders from other private/independent schools and the public school sector. The format encouraged dialogue and questions about how to converse about difficult topics in a respectful and productive way. Concurrently, Seven Acres staff completed the Diversity without Division online course, which served to level-set staff understanding on practical approaches to classroom and family interaction and facilitation.