Researchers are facing an increasingly fraught environment inside and outside labs, classrooms and conference halls. Threats and harassment campaigns challenge scholars’ ability to teach, conduct research, share their findings and participate in public discourse. We want to hear from you! Join us for a Researcher Safety Resource Fair to ask questions and get connected with organizations that can support you and your work. Representatives from AAC&U, Expert Voices Together, Faculty First Responders, PEN America, SciLine, and the Researcher Support Consortium will share our resources, services, and top tips for the moment.
Participants
A collaboration between AAC&U’s Institute for Democracy & Higher Education and the Sustained Dialogue Institute, the Conflict and Conversation Help Desk works directly with individuals and groups on campuses to provide free, confidential preventive guidance and immediate troubleshooting for educators facing difficult, confounding, chilling, frightening, threatening, politicized, and other challenges. We field threats to academic freedom and intergroup dilemmas that arise in research, the classroom, decision-making, cocurricular programming, institutional dynamics, and engaging communities. Our support is tailored to meet the moment in these highly politically charged times.
Expert Voices Together (EVT) provides free, trauma-informed support to journalists and researchers whose vital public-interest work is being undermined by campaigns of abuse and harassment. Our full-time support coordinators meet 1:1 with journalists and researchers to develop a customized support plan. This plan may include digital security assistance, physical security best practices, approaches for communicating with employers, and strategies for identifying and empowering supportive networks and communities, among other tools. Expert Voices Together began as a multi-university research and development project led by academics, clinicians, and industry experts. As of 2025, Expert Voices Together is housed at Right To Be, a nonprofit organization working to end all forms of harassment and hate.
Faculty First Responders is an organization focused on peer-to-peer support and education to defend and expand academic freedom. We partner with the AAUP to provide resources and counseling for academic workers who are experiencing politically-motivated harassment, doxing, or employment retaliation.
SciLine is a free service for journalists and scientists based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society. Editorially independent, nonpartisan, and funded by philanthropies, SciLine has the singular mission of enhancing the amount and quality of scientific evidence in news stories.
The Researcher Support Consortium provides research-backed information and tools on best practices for funders and universities who seek to better support scholars facing intimidation and harassment in response to their vital work. Resources include a free university toolkit, as well as advising services (provided pro- and low-bono wherever possible) for institutional leaders at all levels–from project leads, center directors, and department heads to deans, provosts, and university and organization presidents.