2025 Free Speech Essay Contest
Welcome! The Free Speech Essay Contest sponsored by the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center is designed to encourage high levels of scholarship and thought among UT-Austin students and to promote understanding and appreciation of the freedom of speech and the many complex challenges related to it.
We look forward to reading your submission. Essays will be reviewed via blind judging by a panel of professors who are First Amendment scholars.
Essay guidelines and link to the submission form (scroll to the bottom of this page) can be found below.
Contact Sandra Garcia, Senior Program Coordinator, at sandra.garcia@law.utexas.edu with additional questions. Good luck!
Eligibility
This essay contest is open exclusively to all University of Texas at Austin undergraduate and graduate students (graduate students include all those in professional schools) who are enrolled full-time in Spring Semester 2025.
Prizes
There will be two judging categories: undergraduate and graduate. Winners in each category will be awarded the following prizes*:
- $5,000: FIRST PRIZE
- $3,000: Second Prize
- $2,000: Third Prize
- $1,000: Honorable Mention (at least 3 awarded)
*Please note, awardees are responsible for the earned income taxation on prize money.
Important Dates
- February 17, 2025 by 12:00pm (noon):
Both undergraduate and graduate submissions due. - March/April (date TBA):
All participants are invited to the awards banquet where winners will be announced.
Submission Guidelines and Requirements
- On the submission page (link below), participants will be required to acknowledge a statement that they did not use any form of generative artificial intelligence to draft any portion of their essay.
- Essays should not exceed 1,500 words.
- Essays should be double-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman.
- You may use whichever citation format is the norm in your field of study or major.
- Essays should be submitted in PDF format.
- Important for ensuring the integrity of the blind judging process:
- All entries will be linked to the name and EID entered in the submission form.
- There should be no identifying information on the submitted PDF file.
- No header/footer with name, EID, email, etc.
- There should be no identifying information in the submitted file name.
- Acceptable: Undergraduate_2025 Free Speech Essay Contest
- Unacceptable: Garcia_Undergraduate_2025 Free Speech Essay Contest
PROMPT
Your essay must establish a connection between:
- The recent event regarding the campus protests hosted by the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center (you may watch the video here).
- Some piece of scholarly work written by a University of Texas at Austin scholar, past or present. This could be a book, a scholarly article, an op-ed, or something similar. You will likely need to ask for assistance from UT librarians to identify these works. A list of current First Amendment scholars at UT-Austin is linked below, but you need not limit your essay to one of those scholars.
- Your own personal reflection on the campus protests (you should not use your name or the names of private individuals; if you use names of nonpublic figures, please use pseudonyms).
Resources
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT ESSAY
EID login required to access submission form.