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Courage to Think campaign

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Share your stories!

As part of the 'Courage to Think' campaign, Scholars at Risk invites stories from scholars who have been helped and campus leaders, administrators, faculty, students and friends who have opened their hearts and homes to them.  Share with us your emails, mails, letters, pictures, audio, video or whatever you have about how you or your campus has been involved in protecting scholars and promoting academic freedom.

Scholar stories
Literature (Democratic Republic of Congo)		Journalism/Literature (Iraq)
"The Director of  Prisons told me that I was no longer a professor. He told me to forget my name. He said that when I die, they would just throw me away." Read the full story...		"I pray for peace to prevail. I want to go back to my university students and my library." Read the full story...
Host stories
Centennial College (Canada)		Massey College/ University of Toronto (Canada)
"This is our way of honoring the incredible diversity of our student body. We teach solidarity regardless of background, language, or ethnicity." Read the full story...		"The scholars who I have seen come through the program... realize that they actually can get back into   what they left that they loved so much..." Watch the full video...
VU University Amsterdam (The Netherlands)		UNC Greenboro (U.S.)
"If you are part of larger network, then responsibility is shared... there will be somewhere for them to go." Read the full story...		"To have these individuals with us has been transformational" Read the full story...
Tufts University (U.S.)		University of Oslo (Norway)
"... the scholars seeking help can seem remote, but these are  real colleagues who might be only one or two steps removed from the people and places we know." Read the full story...		"There is a responsibility to speak the truth and to defend the truth, and this is an important part of the role of universities and academics." Read the full story...
Stanford University (U.S.)		UC Davis, School of Law (U.S.)
"I just got very upset that a guy like him, who I respected so much, should be in prison for views so similar to mine." Read the full story...		“At a very young age, I was watching people whose ideas were different and seeing how they were hurt; how it impacted their lives.” Read the full story...
Behind the campaign Ten years ago, university leaders, faculty, human rights experts and advocates met in Chicago.  Mindful of the recent purge of academics in Serbia, arrests and killings of scholars in Colombia, Indonesia, Ethiopia and beyond, mindful too of prior efforts to help, most especially in the 1930s, they resolved to craft a new response to the long-standing problem of targeted attacks on those who create, produce and disseminate knowledge.  The result is Scholars at Risk – a new kind of academic consortium; an international network of universities, colleges and individuals pledged in solidarity to protect threatened colleagues and to promote academic freedom, the heart of the university. In the first year, three scholars – from China, Bangladesh and Russia – were helped to safety and renewal at Scholars at Risk member campuses, while dozens more received advice, referrals and other support.  In the 10 years since, thousands of universities, colleges and individual friends of Scholars at Risk in more than 30 countries worldwide have opened their hearts and homes.  With their help, over 400 scholars have been saved, free to keep researching, writing, teaching and preparing future generations for the challenges and opportunities ahead.  While our urgent work continues, in 2010-11 we pay tribute to the extraordinary people and institutions that have done so much to help.  We rededicate our network to the vision that everyone should be free to think and question, write and share their ideas, without fear, without persecution, for the benefit of all. Information will be added to this page as stories are received. Be sure also to sign up for e-mail updates on campaign and network activities by clicking on the "CONTACT" tab on the main menu. To make a gift in support of the campaign, click on the "DONATE" tab above.