New Courage Research Grants and Addressing Tyranny with Courage
Dear Friends of Courage,
Our Institutional Courage Research Grant Program began with a bold vision: to catalyze research into institutional betrayal and institutional courage that could change how organizations understand and respond to harm. I am pleased to announce that the Center for Institutional Courage recently selected 11 new research projects to fund. These new grants are worth approximately $50,000 and go to scholars at 16 universities..
The newly funded projects include investigation of physician sexual misconduct, institutional courage and betrayal in sports, clergy abuse, and what happens when we stop talking about diversity. Much more about the 11 new projects can be found on our Grants Funded page.
With 44 grants awarded and approximately $200,000 in funding distributed since our grants program started in 2021, we are seeing the early fruits of that investment. This is just the beginning. We’re building a global community of scholars whose work is not only expanding the field, but shaping policy, practice, and public awareness. We’re especially proud of the growing body of peer-reviewed publications emerging from these efforts—tangible evidence of the long-term change these grants are making possible.
Courage’s other primary mission (besides research) is education. One way we engage in education is through public speaking. This year the American Psychological Association (APA) invited me to speak about institutional betrayal, DARVO, and institutional courage in a Main Stage Headline panel (it was the only thing on the schedule at that time at the large convention) , "Burned Bridges and Broken Trust: Psychology’s Solutions for a Troubled Time," at the 2025 APA annual convention held in Denver, 7-9 August 2025.
APA quoted my presentation, "Institutional Betrayal and the Path to Courage, ” in a news release:
"Committing to moral action means not colluding with perpetrators or tyrants. It means courageously choosing what is moral over what is expedient,”
The words I said to the large audience in the ballroom and more attending online, right after the quoted words above, referred to the steps of institutional courage that I displayed on a slide.
In this moment, it is especially important not to obey anticipated unethical (and likely illegal) edicts in advance. That's what autocrats are counting on. On this matter I lament the APA Commission on Accreditation’s recent decision to pause enforcement of certain diversity-related standards. Fortunately, consistent with these steps it is not too late to correct this error and resume enforcement of all of the previously enforced diversity standards.
We are each embedded in institutions and in many cases we can draw on the knowledge base of Courage to call on these institutions to be more courageous.
All the best,
Jennifer Joy Freyd, PhD
Founder and President
Center for Institutional Courage