Sarah McLaughlin
FIRE Staff Speaker
Sarah graduated magna cum laude from Drexel University in 2014 with a B.S. in political science and a minor in history. In 2012, Sarah began working with FIRE as a Program Assistant through Drexel’s cooperative education program and remained on FIRE’s staff for through the rest of her undergraduate career. After graduation, Sarah defended students and faculty facing censorship in FIRE’s Individual Rights Defense Program, where she worked for five years. She also served as director of FIRE’s Targeted Advocacy program, where she focused on U.S. universities’ relationship with international threats to free speech and art censorship. Her writing about free speech issues, including protest and blasphemy laws, has been featured in publications including Foreign Policy, Artsy, The Huffington Post, and New York Daily News.
Recent Writings
- We should be protecting the right to religious freedom,
- UN Human Rights Council gets it wrong: Prosecuting blasphemy won’t stop religious discord, but it will silence dissent,
- Russian censorship laws should not dictate expression in the NHL,
- Twitter puts free speech and transparency at risk if it fails to publish government takedown requests,
- Yet another campus blasphemy dispute in Minnesota: Macalester College covers up Iranian-American’s feminist art exhibition after student complaints,
- Questions remain after MIT asserts it canceled Pompeo’s speech due to COVID-19 restrictions,
- FIRE investigates allegations MIT canceled Mike Pompeo speech about China,
- Censorship in India exposes the gap between ‘free speech’ and the law,
- We must stand up to Iran’s threats to free speech,
- Arrest of student in Boston a grim reminder of the danger facing Chinese dissidents on campus ,
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