In 2011,
Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the
University of Virginia, gave a talk at the
Society for Personality and Social Psychology in which he argued that
American conservatives were under-represented in social psychology and that this hinders research and damages the field's credibility.
[4][5] In 2015, Haidt was contacted by
Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, a
Georgetown University law professor, who had given a talk to the
Federalist Society discussing a similar lack of conservatives in law and similarly argued that this undermines the quality of research and teaching.
[5] Haidt was also contacted by Chris C. Martin, a sociology graduate student at
Emory University, who had published a similar paper in
The American Sociologist about the lack of ideological diversity in sociology.
[6][7] Haidt, Martin, and Rosenkranz formed "Heterodox Academy" to address this issue.
[6][8][9][10][11] Initial funding for the group came from the
Richard Lounsbery Foundation and The Achelis and Bodman Foundation.
[5][12] The Heterodox Academy website was launched with 25 members in September 2015. A series of campus freedom of speech controversies, such as those surrounding
Erika Christakis at Yale and the
2015–16 University of Missouri protests, coincided with an increase in membership.
[5]
Membership was initially open to tenured and pre-tenure professors, but has been expanded to
adjunct professors,
graduate students, and
postdoctorals. The group has a selective membership application process which is partly intended to address imbalances toward any particular political ideology.
[5] In July 2017, the group had 800 members internationally.
[5][13] As of February 2018, around 1,500 college professors had joined Heterodox Academy, along with a couple hundred graduate students.
[3]
In 2018, Debra Mashek, a professor of psychology at
Harvey Mudd College, was appointed as the executive director of Heterodox Academy, a position which she held until 2020, after which an interim executive director was appointed.
[3][14][15][1] In 2020, the organization had around 4,000 members.
[16]
