The Richard D. McLellan Prizes for Advancing Free Speech and Expression
Freedom of expression and the guarantees of the First Amendment are among our most cherished, and hard won, liberties. Their benefits can be hard to see, though they are fundamental to who we are as Americans.
Declining levels of civic literacy threaten to sever a younger generation from their country’s rich inheritance of order, justice, and freedom. The rise of disinformation through social media and curbs on free speech and expression on campuses, workplaces, public spaces, and corporate boardrooms, make advancing this most fundamental freedom an urgent task.
The Richard D. McLellan Prizes is a unique educational program administered by the Russell Kirk Center. Its aim is to help reshape the national conversation on issues surrounding the durability and prospects for the American tradition of free speech and expression as guaranteed in the U. S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
The McLellan Prizes draw attention to the central importance of the free speech tradition, particularly recognizing those doing the most important and exciting work in that area. These Prizes seek to support talented thinkers, creators, and communicators capable of rearticulating the perennial importance of the First Amendment, and transmitting a better understanding of the freedoms it secures for all.
The McLellan Prizes Will Encourage the Best in Creative Works to Champion Free Expression
Through the generous support of Richard D. McLellan, the Prizes program that bears his name will annually award a $50,000 prize that recognizes and encourages the best writing, creative works, actions, and new media communications in the area of Freedom of Speech and Expression. In addition, two outstanding writers will be awarded $12,500 summer research grants to pursue projects that enhance our understanding and advocacy of Free Speech. Together they will support those making an exceptional case for the ongoing necessity of the American tradition of free speech.
We believe that these awards will take their place among the most sought-after prizes and will provide a needed incentive for writers and related thinkers to advocate afresh for the central importance of the First Amendment’s defense of the freedom of speech.
Nominations for the 2025 McLellan Prizes for Advancing Free Speech and Expression are now open.
For inquiries about the McLellan Prizes or about nominated work, please contact mclellanprizes at kirkcenter.org.
2025 McLellan Prize nominations will be open March 15 – July 1, 2025.
Free Speech Fellowship Application
To apply for our Free Speech Fellowship, please send your contact information, CV, and a letter of intent to mclellanprizes at kirkcenter.org.
2024 McLellan Prize Winner Information
Greg Lukianoff, Grand Prize Winner
Greg Lukianoff is an attorney, New York Times best-selling author, and the President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). He is the author of Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate, Freedom From Speech, and FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus.
He co-authored The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure with Jonathan Haidt. Most recently Greg co-authored The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution with
Rikki Schlott. Greg is also an Executive Producer of Can We Take a Joke? (2015), a feature-length documentary that explores the collision between comedy, censorship, and outrage culture, both on and off campus, and of Mighty Ira: A Civil Liberties Story (2020), an award-winning feature-length film about the life and career of former ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser.
Greg has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and numerous other publications. He frequently appears on TV shows and radio programs, including the CBS Evening News, The Today Show, and NPR’s Morning Edition. In 2008, he became the first-ever recipient of the Playboy Foundation’s Freedom of Expression Award, and he has testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives about free speech issues on America’s college campuses.
Samuel Goldman, Academic Prize Winner
Samuel Goldman is an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is also executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom & Democracy. His most recent book, After Nationalism: Being American in a Divided Age was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in spring 2021. Goldman received his Ph.D. from Harvard, and taught at Harvard and Princeton before coming to GW. In addition to academic work, his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.
Josiah Joner, Academic Prize Winner
Josiah Joner studied economics at Stanford University, where he served as the 68th
Editor-in-Chief of The Stanford Review. At Stanford, Josiah covered various issues of
free speech on campus and documented many of the university’s censorship efforts
during the Covid pandemic. He has testified before Congress on protecting free
speech in higher education and has appeared on major television and radio networks.
Josiah lives in the Bay Area and is working on a project about free speech and
censorship at Stanford and beyond.
Photos from the Inaugural 2024 McLellan Prizes Gala in Grand Rapids, Michigan
