The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University is accepting applications for undergraduate interns for summer 2025. We want creative, motivated, and committed undergraduate students to join us in the defense of the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age. You’ll get to contribute to ground-breaking First Amendment research and communications.
About Us
The Knight First Amendment Institute defends the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, policy advocacy, and public education. Through our work, we promote a system of free expression that is open and inclusive; that broadens and elevates public discourse; and that fosters creativity, accountability, and effective self-government.
Since its establishment in 2016, the Institute has filed precedent-setting litigation, undertaken major interdisciplinary research initiatives, and become an influential voice in debates about the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age. Its active litigation docket includes cutting-edge cases relating to transparency, surveillance, and social media. Through its research program, the Institute has hosted leading thinkers as visiting scholars and published influential essays focused on emerging threats to the system of free expression. It has also hosted public events on algorithmic amplification and society, AI and public discourse, lies and the law, and the future of press freedom, among others.
What You'll Do
Your primary responsibility as an intern will be to support our research and communications programs. You’ll work alongside the Institute’s staff and legal interns on all aspects of our programs, including research, data management, communications, and public education. Our current projects span a wide range of issues, including free speech on social media, government surveillance, intermediary liability, government transparency, the rights of whistleblowers, the right of journalists to protect their sources, encryption, and machine speech.
Qualifications
The internship is open to current undergraduate students at any college/university who will have completed at least the first year of their undergraduate degree before the internship begins. Applicants should possess excellent research, writing, and communication skills, and have a strong interest in human rights principles and the freedoms of speech and the press in particular.
We are hiring for a full-time, 10-week internship beginning on June 2nd, 2025. Interns will work 35 hours/week at a pay rate of $22.00/hour.
How to Apply
Applicants should submit the following materials in an email with “Summer 2025 Internship Application” as the subject line to [email protected] by March 30th, 2025, at 11:59pm ET:
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a cover letter (one-page maximum) explaining your interest in the internship, including a description of any relevant work or personal experience,
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a resume,
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an official or unofficial transcript, and
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one writing sample (preferably research papers).