Freedom of Expression Division
article type:
Interest Group Awards
2025
Listed here are awards given by the Interest Group to its members. Interests Groups are smaller communities within NCA’s large membership that provide a range of resources including networking opportunities, Annual Convention programming, leadership opportunities, awards, and specialized information dissemination channels, among others.
Robert M. O’Neill Top Division Paper Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Pranaav Jadhav & Jared Schroeder, “Playing the Long Game: Considering the Roberts Court’s Online Speech Decisions Through the Game Theory Lens” |
| 2024 | Jennifer Lambe, Sean Stevens, James Bingaman, “Revising the Willingness to Censor Scale” |
| 2023 | Joshua Guitar, Jennifer Hallett, and Ambyre Ponivas, “You Can’t Not Spray It When You Say It: A Post-Pandemic Rhetorical Intervention at the Intersection of Free Speech, Public Health, and Harm” |
| 2022 | Dale A. Herbeck “Shurtleff v. City of Boston: One Case, Two Frames, and Three Flagpoles” |
| 2021 | Ben Medeiros “Taking Stock of the ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Since the Enactment of the GDPR.” |
| 2020 | Christopher Gilbert, “From Press Freedoms to Flashpoints in the Firestorms of Editorial Cartoons” |
| 2019 | Jason Zenor, “From Blurred Lines to Slants: Applying Free Speech Theory to IP Law” |
| 2018 | Ben Medeiros, “User-Generated Content and the Regulation of Reputational Harm: The Case of the Boston Marathon Bombing” |
| 2017 | A. Jay Wagner, “Informing the Public, Watching the Rascals: Exploring FOIA’s First Amendment Ties” |
| 2016 | Sharon Docter, “Why Bloggers and Journalists Should be Treated the Same Under Libel Laws” |
| 2015 | Brian Amsden, “Rhetorical Interventions in the Law: Interpreting ‘I ♥ Boobies!’” |
| 2014 | Kevin Johnson and Craig Smith, “Fear and the First Amendment” |
| 2010 | David R. Dewberry and Katie Langford, “Silencing Spectacles” |
| 2003 | Donald Fishman |
| 2001 | Donald Fishman |
| 1999 | Craig R. Smith, “44 Liquormart: Unanimity without Consensus” |
| 1997 | Craig R. Smith, “The Unconstitutional Nature of Product Specific Bans and Taxes: The case of Bill Board Advertising” |
| 1995 | Richard Parker, “A Marketplace of Ideas: Myths, Metaphors and Ideals in First Amendment Jurisprudence” |
Top Student Paper Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Olivia Sara Gellar, “Idealizing Individualism: The Civitas Institute’s Threat to Public Good” |
| 2023 | Meiqing Zhang, “Evolving Relevance of Liberty and Equality in Democratic Discourse: A Semantic Approach” |
| 2022 | Averie Vockel “It’s Time to SLAPP Back” |
| 2020 | Rachel Buitrago & Jane Choi, “Perceptions of Freedom of Expression on College Campuses” |
| 2019 | Robbyn Taylor, “From Rules to Reality: DC Comics’ Place in Shifting a Genre” |
| 2018 | Alvin Primack, “Parrhêsia: A Situational Ethics of Free Speech and Communication Law” |
| 2017 | Alvin Primack, “Youth Sexting, Child Pornography Law, and the First Amendment: Toward an Alternative Media Production and Distribution Model for Evaluating Youth Sexual Expression” |