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
Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms
A project studying how advanced AI systems may harm, or help strengthen, democratic freedoms
Research Projects
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Essay Series
Lawyering Without Law: The Legal Profession in an Age of Authoritarianism
A project studying the crucial role that lawyers can play in preserving democratic freedoms and institutions
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Essay Series
Federal Funding and the First Amendment
A research initiative studying the question of when the government may regulate speech by imposing conditions on federal funding.
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Essay Series
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
Essays and Scholarship
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Regardless of Frontiers: The First Amendment and the Exchange of Ideas Across Borders
Surveilling Border Lawyering
Lawyers who serve migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border face surveillance and attempts to suppress their work by U.S. and Mexican government officials
By Jaya Ramji-Nogales & Nicole Ramos -
Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms
The AI Power Disparity Index: Toward a Compound Measure of AI Actors’ Power to Shape the AI Ecosystem
A proposal for an AI Power Disparity Index, a composite indicator designed to measure and signal the changing distribution of power in the AI ecosystem
By Rachel M. Kim , Blaine Kuehnert , Seth Lazar , Ranjit Singh & Hoda Heidari -
