The Institute for Free Speech is pleased to announce that Helen Knowles-Gardner has joined the Institute as Research Director.

Helen comes to IFS after working for almost 20 years as a political science professor.

“Increasingly, the very idea of ‘free speech’ is coming under attack,” Helen said. “I am therefore honored to be joining a team committed to ensuring that this freedom, crucial to human existence, is valued and vigorously defended.”

Helen has written extensively about various aspects of American law and politics, including co-editing/co-authoring two books about freedom of speech: Judging Free Speech: First Amendment Jurisprudence of U.S. Supreme Court Justices; and Free Speech Theory: Understanding the Controversies. Her third co-authored book about expressive freedom, Filming the First: Cinematic Portrayals of Freedom of the Press, will be published in 2024.

She is the author of four other books, including The Tie Goes to Freedom: Justice Anthony M. Kennedy On Liberty – the first book about Justice Kennedy’s jurisprudence, and numerous peer-reviewed and law review articles. Over the course of her career, she has been frequently interviewed by numerous media outlets.

Helen earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston University and a B.A. in American Studies, with first class honors (graduating first in her class), from Liverpool Hope University College (now Hope University) in Liverpool, England.

An avid runner, Helen participates in races across the country, including the Marine Corps Marathon, running with the Flag for Team RWB, a national organization devoted to enhancing the lives of the nation’s veterans. She and her husband, a disabled U.S. Navy veteran, live in upstate New York.