Talia Barnes

Communications Team
Talia graduated from Dickinson College in 2017 with a B.A. in English and art and a minor in creative writing. Before joining FIRE, she spent three years as a multimedia specialist at Penn State University and a year as a resident artist at her alma mater, during which she completed two art exhibits and taught art classes to K-12 students. In college, Talia was photo editor of the student newspaper, The Dickinsonian, and spent summers contributing to TBR News Media, a local news organization on Long Island, as a freelance writer and photographer. Talia’s belief in the value of free expression is informed by her mindfulness practice and interest in psychology. Outside of work, you can find her doing some kind of art project, exploring local yard sales with her husband, or trying—with limited success—to walk her cat, Bo.
Recent Writings
- Replatforming: The key to canceling cancel culture?,
- Four resolutions for an expressive new year,
- VICTORY: On First Amendment grounds, NJ woman’s ‘Fuck Biden’ flags free to fly another day,
- Forbidden food for thought: How attempts to control media consumption backfire,
- Cancel culture empowers the powerful — at everyone else’s expense,
- New members join FIRE’s Board of Directors, Advisory Council,
- Some lessons from the sorry history of campus speech codes,
- Dartmouth doubles down on rationale for canceling in-person Andy Ngo event, but the details still don’t add up,
- Critics of New York Times ‘Free Speech’ editorial get it wrong by drawing false equivalency between criticism and crackdown,
- Rising censorship, falling trust: How lack of transparency erodes trust in higher ed and beyond,
- Spotlight on student press freedom: FIRE’s recent cases and the state of student journalism,
- Speak your mind, but not like that: Are we all hypocrites when it comes to cancel culture?,
- Six degrees of offensive speech: At what cost will colleges avoid conflict?,

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