Threatened and Displaced Scholars

With the retreat of democracy around the globe, the threat to academic freedom has never been greater. In response, the Wilson Center launched an initiative to offer residential fellowships to foreign scholars who face threats to their lives or their careers in their home countries.

With fellows from Belarus, Myanmar, and other authoritarian regimes, the Initiative seeks to provide a temporary institutional base for scholars who face threats because their research and actions have challenged their countries’ authoritarian regimes or because their countries face ongoing conflicts.

As part of this work, the Wilson Center joined the Institute of International Education Scholar Rescue Fund Alliance, a global network of partners offering practical support to threatened scholars, and the only global program that arranges and funds fellowships for threatened and displaced scholars at partnering higher education institutions worldwide.

This initiative institutionalizes and amplifies these earlier efforts from the Wilson Center, providing a more sustained measure of support.