Project Lead(s): Josiah Beharry, Ph.D. candidate in Interdisciplinary Humanities and Eileen Camfiled, Teaching Professor/Senior Lecturer with Security of Employment and Faculty Associate for Writing and Pedagogy, Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning

Is Laughter the Last Free Speech? In a time when conversations feel like landmines, comment sections are battlegrounds, and students are more anxious and disconnected than ever, one tool still cuts through the noise: comedy.

Comic Relief is a UC Merced initiative that explores stand-up comedy as one of the last truly free and joyful forms of expression. This program isn’t just about cracking jokes. It’s about using humor to speak truth, question power, and reconnect in a world that too often feels divided and numb.

Through a semester-long course (WRI 122: “Stand-Up Comedy? Seriously!”) and a culminating community showcase, students will be trained in the craft of stand-up as a form of civic storytelling, transforming their lived experiences into laughter that sparks reflection, healing, and resistance.

Comedy has always existed at the edge of what society is willing to hear. From ancient satire to modern comics dismantling injustice, stand-up is where free speech, vulnerability, and critique collide with a mic and humor.

At a moment when students face record levels of anxiety, depression, and isolation, this project offers something radical: joy. Not empty escapism, but joy as a political act. Joy as a bridge. Joy as a reminder that we’re still here, still human, and still capable of laughing at the chaos around us. Because not every act of free speech comes with a picket line —some come with a punchline.

Project Lead(s): Alexis Applebaum and Neha Vijay, Undergraduate students, Philip Goodrich, Manager, Campus Life Initiatives and Mary Romo, ASUCLA Programming Manager

The Democracy Workshop series is a student-led initiative at UCLA that creates accessible, engaging spaces for students to learn about civic issues, democratic processes, and their role in public life. Since 2023, the program has offered interactive events on topics like media literacy, ballot navigation, political dialogue, and combating misinformation. In 2025–26, the series will shift to one large-scale workshop each quarter, designed to draw a wide campus audience through high-profile speakers, participatory activities, and partnerships across academic disciplines. By expanding into topics at the intersection of science, technology, and policy, the program aims to reach students from all fields of study and inspire them to see themselves as active contributors to a more informed and engaged democracy.

Project Lead(s): Amy Liu, Ph.D. student in Sociology

This research project will examine how UC-based teacher preparation programs shape future educators as they navigate tensions between pedagogical freedom, democratic education, and political backlash in the "anti-woke" era. Drawing on analysis from both 1. program-level curricula/formal training requirements and 2. in-depth interviews with teacher candidates, the project will investigate how the UC system can more effectively prepare educators to foster civic responsibility and social justice in California's public schools.

Project Lead(s): Mennatullah Hendawy, PhD student in Computational Media

Digital Self-Defense is a student-centered initiative to strengthen digital safety, literacy, and free expression at UC Santa Cruz. Through two workshop series and co-design sessions, we will create an open-source Digital Self-Defense Toolkit with practical how-tos and checklists. The project will help students protect privacy, navigate platforms more safely, counter harassment and misinformation.

Project Lead(s): Sanjit Masanam and Manuel Rodriguez, Undergraduate students

The Gaucho Think Tank empowers students from diverse skill sets (STEM, public policy, the arts, etc.) to engage civically and learn to address systemic problems through interdisciplinary approaches. While traditional think tanks focus on policy research and proposals to create change, this project involves students of differing skill sets to translate that research into tangible improvements, such as through engineering and art.

Project Lead(s): Michael McCormack, Assistant Director, Leadership & Involvement in Residential Life

Mapping the Moment: LA Neighborhoods and the Road to 2028 is a 10-week civic learning workshop series that uses the visibility and excitement surrounding the upcoming Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games as an entry point for deeper civic reflection and engagement. The Olympics provide a unique opportunity to examine how cities narrate themselves to the world—what is highlighted, what is hidden, and how those choices affect local communities. This program encourages participants to critically explore those narratives while celebrating the complexity, resilience, and vibrancy of Los Angeles. Over the course of 10 weeks, ten participants will engage in a carefully designed blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning, including in-person workshops, virtual discussions, neighborhood excursions, and self-paced activities. Each session will center on a civic learning theme—such as deliberative dialogue, media literacy, and power analysis.

Project Lead(s): Alejandra Rivas Deras, fourth-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine, Jacqueline Cabral, M.D. candidate at David Geffen School of Medicine, Melanie Ramirez, MD/MPP candidate and Summer Khan, MD candidate

The Immigrant Health, Healing, and Advocacy Series is a quarterly seminar hosted by medical students at the University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, San Francisco. The series aims to create a space for health professional trainees to engage in reflection, education, and advocacy training in support of immigrant health. Interactive workshops will offer students an opportunity to participate in narrative reflection, learn about the immigrant health policy and resource landscape in California, and develop civic engagement and advocacy skills. The goal of this series is to prepare students to better serve immigrant communities affected by the current socio-political climate and to equip them with the tools necessary to advocate for a more just society.

Project Lead(s): Jens Pohlmann, Lecturer and Researcher in Science and Technology Studies and Laila Azhar, Undergraduate student

In this project, students of STS 110 “Computing, Data, & Law in the United States” will develop a survey to collect data about UC Davis students’ knowledge about and attitudes towards the content moderation practices of social media platforms, their legal foundations, and their impact on freedom of speech. This process will allow students to put the theoretical knowledge that they have gained through the course readings into practice and to share their insights with the greater student community. While campus debates around free speech often focus on in-person expression, much of students’ discourse now happens online — on the many social media platforms that shape not only how students communicate, but also what they feel comfortable to publicly express. By investigating how students engage with free speech and platform moderation in online spaces, we aim to better understand the evolving culture of speech among younger generations. Our research and initiatives will highlight patterns in digital discourse, identify barriers to open dialogue, and create opportunities to support a more thoughtful and democratic online communication.

Project Lead(s): Kelly Brown, Director of Media Relations and Communications, School of Humanities and Tyrus Miller, Dean of Humanities, School of Humanities

Social Media Storytellers: On Academic Freedom will create a cohort of undergraduate student storytellers to research, analyze, and explore academic freedom through multimedia content. The media series will be conceptualized and produced by undergrads to speak directly to their peers on this pressing campus issue. Part of a research communications fellowship, students will spend one quarter learning about academic freedom before creating social media stories on the topic. We recognize that engaging through stories is a powerful creative vehicle for addressing complicated issues. By creating a fellowship that utilizes social media as its primary platform, we strive to inspire younger generations to understand what academic freedom is, its history, and why it matters to them as students and citizens.

Project Lead(s): Maya Church, Undergraduate student

The Open Dissent seeks to challenge ideological echo chambers by prioritizing civil disagreement, real-time fact checking, and inclusive participation. The Open Dissent offers a space between academic discourse and everyday conversation. Unlike traditional media, ideas can be challenged and expanded, not just reinforced. Podcast topics are derived from data collected on our website where users are encouraged to anonymously share their beliefs regarding any social, political, or cultural issue. At the end of the week, the leading topic will be featured for an in-person discussion on The Open Dissent podcast. Each episode will feature two users from the website who contributed to the discussion. Participants are selected for their diverse viewpoints, and conversations are structured as roundtable dialogue with active moderation and real-time fact checking. Ultimately, The Open Dissent is not just about talking across differences, it's about strengthening the skills and values that sustain a democratic society.

Project Lead(s): Eraldo Souza dos Santos, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Law and Society

In Samuel Beckett's groundbreaking play, Waiting for Godot (1953), Lucky, enslaved by Pozzo, remains silent throughout the narrative. But with one exception: when allowed by his master, Lucky utters a long, incoherent monologue that sheds light on his experience with unfreedom. Lucky is no exception in the history of playwriting and theater: Monologues have been used across history to give voice to the unheard and remain one of the most common genres for expressing challenges to free expression. In the United States, there has been a long tradition of organizing festivals for ten-minute monologues that gather actors, directors, and playwrights from across the country each year. This project will organize the first festival of this kind in the University of California system. Three monologues will be selected to be staged at UC Irvine in May 2026.