Freedom of Expression Essay Contest Award

The Freedom of Expression Essay Contest was created to encourage student reflection about free speech and civil dialogue. Participants of the contest must submit an essay or creative work answering the prompt provided at the “Me, You, or the Institution: Who Gets to Teach Race” event on April 29, 2025. More information on the event can be found here: uwosh.edu/community-engagement/. A recording of the event will be posted following the event on the website above.

Three awards will be given in the amount of $2,000 each! The awards will be paid out in Fall 2025. Applicants must be enrolled full- or part-time at UW Oshkosh during the Fall 2025 semester to be eligible to receive the award.

This award is funded through the Kleinschmidt Family Foundation Freedom of Expression Fund, which was established to prioritize and foster freedom of speech programming on the UW Oshkosh campus.

Award
$2,000
Scopes
Center for Civic & Community Engagement, Graduate Award, Undergraduate Award
Deadline
05/23/2025
Supplemental Questions
  1. This prompt has multiple parts, please address all of them through your work.

    1) The speakers tonight discussed the role of different institutions in the teaching of race. They represented different perspectives that were influenced by their lived and professional experiences and expertise. Teaching about “race” can be highly contested therefore, reflecting on the event’s conversation, where and how should people learn about race in the United States? Use examples from the talk throughout your argument.

    2) Was this conversation a good example of civil discourse and free speech? Why or why not? How did the speakers represent the best (or worst) of how civil dialogue and the exchange of competing ideas can or should occur at UW Oshkosh?

    Recognizing that critical thinking can be displayed in multiple forms across individual students based on their strengths, this contest is open for a variety of submissions including short essays, poetry, artwork, music, and/or other creative mediums. Quality submissions will use multiple examples and direct quotes, when possible, from tonight's event. You may also bring in additional outside sources as long as they are cited. Writing quality, detail, depth and thoughtfulness of argument, and accuracy of event description will also be considered while scoring the submission. Essays must be less than 1,000 words. All creative pieces must be accompanied by a short-written statement, including a link to the work. Creative work should be comparable to a 1,000 word essay in length and scope.