page_title: Scholars at Risk
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Scholars at Risk / History
caption_attribution_description: Anne Frank Awards, 09-14-2017, Library of Congress, Washington DC, photos: Stephen Voss
context_page_description: Scholars at Risk 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 530 higher education institutions in 42 countries.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: Scholars at Risk receives the Anne Frank Award 2017 -director Rob Quinn
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