Research
The Knight Institute’s research program aims to foster interdisciplinary scholarship and commentary about the First Amendment, particularly on issues relating to new technology. We host visiting fellows and scholars from multiple disciplines, and we publish essays representing a broad range of perspectives.
The Institute advances its own positions through litigation, as well as through our Policy Papers. Through our research program, we explore a broader array of questions, and we afford scholars and practitioners the opportunity to develop and present positions that are sometimes different from our own. We do this both to enrich public debate and to deepen our own understanding of the First Amendment. We aim to publish pieces that are well-argued, well-informed, and provocative.
Read more about the Institute’s research program here.
Read more about the Institute’s Visiting Research Scholars program here. Read about current and former visiting scholars and affiliates here. Read about the Research Advisory Board here.
Featured
Permission to Speak Freely? Managing Government Employee Speech in a Democracy
A project exploring the law and politics of public employee speech
Research Projects
-
Title VI and the First Amendment
A research initiative studying the intersections of student expressive rights and anti-discrimination law
-
Essay Series
Permission to Speak Freely? Managing Government Employee Speech in a Democracy
A project exploring the law and politics of public employee speech
-
Essay Series
The Future of Press Freedom: Democracy, Law, and the News in Changing Times
A project aimed at identifying and protecting core press functions
-
Essay Series
Jawboning and the First Amendment
A research initiative studying governmental efforts to pressure social media platforms to change their content moderation policies and practices
-
Report
Covering Democracy: Protests, Police, and the Press
A report investigating a major threat to press freedom
-
Essay Series
Algorithmic Amplification and Society
A project studying algorithmic amplification and distortion, and exploring ways to minimize harmful amplifying or distorting effects
-
Essay Series
Policy Papers
A series of papers presenting the Knight Institute’s positions and recommendations on questions regarding technology policy, privacy, and the future of free speech
-
Essay Series
Lies and the Law
A series of public conversations and publications exploring what the law can and should do about the problem of lies and deception in the contemporary mass public sphere
-
Essay Series
Data and Democracy
A Knight Institute and Law and Political Economy Project essay series considering how big data is changing our system of self-government
-
Symposiums and Convenings
Mapping Social Media
A research project aimed at identifying the “logics” of social media
-
Essay Series
Occasional Papers
An essay series tackling pressing issues at the intersection of speech, privacy, and technology
-
Essay Series
The Tech Giants, Monopoly Power, and Public Discourse
An essay series addressing the tech giants' power to shape public discourse
-
-
Essay Series
Emerging Threats
An essay series exploring new or intensifying threats to the system of free expression
Essays and Scholarship
-
Permission to Speak Freely? Managing Government Employee Speech in a Democracy
Reforming Pickering to Better Protect Government Employees’ Speech
Some comparative law lessons from Canada and Australia
By Ronald Krotoszynski -
Permission to Speak Freely? Managing Government Employee Speech in a Democracy
Permission to Speak Freely: An Introduction
An introduction to "Permission to Speak Freely," a series of essays about public employee speech from leading academics and advocates
By Sam Lebovic -
Permission to Speak Freely? Managing Government Employee Speech in a Democracy
Gags and Grievance: The Labor Origins of Whistleblowing
The forgotten history of the Lloyd-La Follette Act and of whistleblowing in the federal workforce
By Sarah Milov