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
Regardless of Frontiers: The First Amendment and the Exchange of Ideas Across Borders
A project about surveillance, censorship, and the changing role of the international border
Research Projects
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Title VI and the First Amendment
A research initiative studying the intersections of student expressive rights and anti-discrimination law
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Essay Series
Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms
A project studying how advanced AI systems may harm, or help strengthen, democratic freedoms
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Essay Series
Permission to Speak Freely? Managing Government Employee Speech in a Democracy
A project exploring the law and politics of public employee speech
Essays and Scholarship
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Regardless of Frontiers: The First Amendment and the Exchange of Ideas Across Borders
Silenced by Surveillance: The Impacts of Digital Transnational Repression on Journalists, Human Rights Defenders, and Dissidents in Exile
Findings from interviews with over 80 people living in the diaspora or in exile
By Siena Anstis & Ronald Deibert -
Regardless of Frontiers: The First Amendment and the Exchange of Ideas Across Borders
Listeners’ Rights in the Time of Propaganda: The Story of Lamont v. Postmaster General
A history of an overlooked case about communist snail mail and its lessons for the digital age
By Xiangnong (George) Wang -
Regardless of Frontiers: The First Amendment and the Exchange of Ideas Across Borders
Protecting Immigrant Activists From U.S. Government Retaliation: Lessons From First Amendment Litigation
Immigrant activists in the U.S. face legal and structural barriers when fighting First Amendment retaliation.
By Alina Das