Project title: Speech as a Social Contract: The Politics, Philosophy, and Psychology of the First Amendment and Its Defenders
Project description: My work examines First Amendment rights and free expression through an interdisciplinary approach involving the study of democracy, political psychology, constitutional law, classical liberalism, and game theory. Ultimately, I aim to understand what constitutes a society truly supportive of free speech and evaluate the extent to which public attitudes support or burden its realization. I am especially interested in how publicly defending the free expression rights of speakers with unpopular viewpoints can increase public support for free expression in cases where free speech is most vulnerable to viewpoint-based censorship.
My College Scholar thesis specifically leverages quantitative vignette and factorial survey experiments to address a paradox: 94 percent of Americans agree that free speech is among “essential rights important to being an American today” (HKS, 2020), yet 31 percent believe that the First Amendment goes “too far” (FIRE, 2024), and college students increasingly report that it is acceptable to use violence to stop speech (FIRE, 2026). The discrepancy between the recognition of free speech as a fundamental, principled right and limited actual support demonstrates a reality in which individuals increasingly support free speech for shared viewpoints while silencing or neglecting to protect speech for viewpoints they reject or view as ‘harmful.’ My research aims to draw causal inferences about the extent to which authorities who publicly defend the speech of unpopular speakers can increase public support for the speaker’s right to express their views, particularly among participants who disagree with those viewpoints. Through this work, I hope to identify effective practical methods, such as defending disfavored speech, to increase public support for the universal, nonpartisan right to free expression. Further, I hope these findings will encourage stakeholders and authorities to defend unpopular speech in critical public forums, which lies at the core of meaningful free expression itself.
Most important achievement: Pushing myself to grow in supportive and intellectually-stimulating communities across Cornell, especially on Cornell's parliamentary debate team where I found my second home.
Reflections on the College Scholar Program: Through College Scholar, I've met and bonded with a cohort of students whose different paths would have never crossed my own without this program. Hearing each one's excitement in sharing their ideas has been truly inspiring for my own research, and I have grown immensely as a learner and listener because of it.