User:Calfux/sandbox/SAR

Scholars at Risk (SAR) is a U.S.-based international network of academic institutions organized to support and defend the principles of academic freedom and to defend the human rights of scholars around the world. Network membership includes over 400 higher education institutions in 39 countries.

History
Scholars at Risk was founded during a Human Rights Program in the University of Chicago in 1999 where it launched with a large conference in June 2000. It has its headquarters in the Greenwich Village campus of New York University. Rob Quinn is the director of Scholars at Risk.

In 2001, Scholars at Risk joined with other international education and human rights organizations to launch the Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR). When NEAR disbanded SAR continued this work through its Academic Freedom Media Review, Scholars-in-Prison Project and Academic Freedom Monitoring Project.

In 2002, SAR partnered with the Institute of International Education which was then establishing IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund. The Fund provides financial support to scholars facing grave threats so that they may escape dangerous conditions and continue their academic work in safety.

In 2003, the network headquarters relocated from the University of Chicago to the New York City campus of New York University (NYU). In 2005, SAR and partners began organizing SAR ‘sections’ and ‘partner networks’ around the world, building a global community pledged to help scholars and promote academic freedom everywhere.

From 2007 to 2010, SAR led a series of workshops to provide a safe, open forum for academics and advocates from around the world to discuss the regional dimensions of academic freedom and the challenges faced, and to develop joint responses. These led to the development of an academic freedom curriculum and in 2011 to the Academic Freedom Advocacy Team, which researched protection for academic freedom under international human rights law.

In 2012, SAR launched the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, through which volunteer researchers document attacks on higher education in specific countries or regions which are then published in a report. The first Free to Think report was published in 2015 and since then it has been published annually.

In 2014, SAR formalized the Student Advocacy Seminar, an initiative through which faculty researchers help students develop research and advocacy skills while investigating attacks on higher education communities.

Activities
SAR's activities are organized under three main pillars: Protection, Advocacy and Learning.

Protection
SAR arranges for positions of sanctuary at universities and colleges in the network for intellectuals fleeing persecution and violence. Scholars are referred to the network for assessment, referrals or transition assistance.

Advocacy
Scholars at Risk advocates on behalf of academics, writers, artists, and other intellectuals who are threatened in their home countries. SAR organizes global campaigns to support imprisoned scholars and students. It engages students in Student Advocacy Seminars and Legal Clinics to learn real-world research and advocacy skills. Adam Braver at Roger Williams University is the Coordinator of the Advocacy Seminars. In the US Student Advocacy Days are also organized. SAR also conducts research with a network of volunteer researchers for the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project.

Academic Freedom Monitoring Project
The monitoring project collects data on defined attacks on higher education. These are gathered by contributing researchers who report and analyze incidents, track down sources and witnesses and help to develop advocacy responses. Every year the Free to Think report is published highlighting these incidents.

Learning
SAR organizes various activities which support learning about academic freedom, such as an Annual Global Conference, faculty/researcher workshops, SAR Speaker series, research groups, workshops on promoting higher education values. SAR has recently created a MOOC called Dangerous Questions in collaboration with the University of Oslo.

Some scholars who SAR has advocated or is advocating for

 * Abdulqadir Jalaleddin,
 * Ahmadreza Djalali, Iran
 * Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba, India
 * Hatoon Al-Fassi, Saudi Arabia
 * Ilham Tohti, Iran
 * Khalil Al-Halwachi, Bahrain
 * Niloufar Bayani, Iran
 * Nasser bin Ghaith, United Arab Emirates
 * Omid Kokabee, Iran
 * Patrick George Zaki, Egypt
 * Rahile Dawut, China
 * Tashpolat Tiyip, China
 * Xiyue Wang, Iran

Structure
SAR's headquarters are in the United States. In 2018 a European office was opened in Ireland at Maynooth University. SAR has sections in different countries which coordinate activities of SAR members in that country.

SAR Sections
SAR has sections, that is groups of higher education institutions and associations that are officially organized on a national or regional level to coordinate their SAR activities.

Affiliations and partnerships
Scholars at Risk maintains affiliations and partnerships with other associations and organizations with related objectives, including the UK-based  CARA and the UK Universities Network, Scholar Rescue Fund, Spain's Grupo 9 de Universidades, the Scholars at Risk Ireland Section of Universities Ireland Network, the Foundation for Refugee Students UAF in the Netherlands, the Philipp Schwartz initiative of the Humboldt Foundation.