Toolkit

AAUP Dox Defense Resources

When to use it: You have been doxxed or fear you will be — your personal information has been posted, or a harassment campaign is forming. Step-by-step guidance on locking down your information, documenting the attack, and responding.

Last updated: December 2025

PEN America Online Harassment Field Manual

When to use it: You are facing online harassment, threats, or hate speech and need a practical playbook for responding, protecting yourself, and recovering. Includes specific guidance for allies and for employers.

Last updated: Ongoing resource, regularly updated

Faculty First Responders — Crisis Communications Contact

When to use it: A media outlet or activist campaign is targeting you, or you need peer support and crisis-communications advice from people who do this work. Direct contact for academic workers facing politically motivated attacks.

Last updated: December 2025

Access Now Digital Security Helpline

When to use it: Your accounts or devices may be compromised, or you need urgent expert help. Free, confidential, 24/7 digital-security support for civil society; responds within two hours, in ten languages. Email help@accessnow.org.

Last updated: Ongoing resource

AAUP Academic Freedom First-Aid Kit

When to use it: Something just happened — an investigation, discipline, suspension, or termination. Immediate-response guidance for the first hours and days of an academic-freedom incident.

Last updated: August 2025

AAUP Legal Resources

When to use it: You need legal reference material on academic-freedom, employment, and free-speech matters, or want to understand your options before contacting counsel.

Last updated: December 2025

AAUP Responding to FOIA Requests

When to use it: You have received — or expect — a public-records or FOIA request targeting your emails, research, or communications. Explains your rights and how to respond.

Last updated: July 2024

MESA Academic Freedom Threat Tracker

When to use it: You want to understand the current landscape of academic-freedom threats, find comparable cases, or reference case-law documents. A running record maintained by the Middle East Studies Association.

Last updated: May 2026

Scholars at Risk

When to use it: Your safety or position is seriously threatened and you may need to relocate. An international network that arranges temporary academic positions and provides advisory and referral services.

Last updated: Ongoing resource

Palestine Legal

When to use it: You are facing backlash, discipline, or legal threats for Palestine-related advocacy. Legal support and Know-Your-Rights resources for students, faculty, and staff in the US.

Last updated: Ongoing resource

National Lawyers Guild — Mass Defense Program & Hotline

When to use it: You are facing legal action or were arrested in connection with a protest. Connects you to legal observers, Know-Your-Rights trainings, and local arrest-support hotlines.

Last updated: Ongoing resource

ILRC Immigration Preparedness Kit

When to use it: You or someone in your community wants to prepare a personal or family plan before an immigration enforcement encounter. From the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Note: Dated 2020 — pair with the NILC and ACLU resources below for current guidance.

Last updated: April 2020

NILC Know Your Rights — Students & Education Providers

When to use it: You need Know-Your-Rights guidance or a wallet card, including resources made specifically for students, schools, and education providers facing immigration enforcement. From the National Immigration Law Center.

Last updated: Ongoing resource

ACLU Know Your Rights: Immigrants' Rights

When to use it: You want plain-language guidance on your rights during ICE or border encounters at home, work, or in public. Available in multiple languages, with downloadable lock-screen graphics.

Last updated: Ongoing resource

Presidents' Alliance — Higher Ed Immigration Portal

When to use it: You support undocumented, DACA, immigrant, or international students and want a central hub of data, policy analysis, and campus-focused resources.

Last updated: Ongoing resource

Sanctuary Campus Network Counter-AI Guide

When to use it: You want to understand how AI-driven monitoring and surveillance operate on campus and reduce your exposure before you are targeted.

Last updated: May 2026

AAUP Digital Security Resources

When to use it: You want preventive digital-security guidance tailored to academic workers — securing accounts, devices, and personal data.

Last updated: December 2025

EFF Surveillance Self-Defense

When to use it: You want a thorough, free, step-by-step guide to digital security — building a personal security plan, using strong passwords, and securing your devices and communications.

Last updated: Ongoing resource, updated 2025

CAHE Day of Action Toolkit

When to use it: You are planning a day of action or campus mobilization and need templates, tactics, and messaging. From the Coalition for Action in Higher Education.

Last updated: March 2025

PSWG Toolkit for Food Boycotts

When to use it: You are organizing a food or dining boycott as a pressure tactic and want a practical, step-by-step how-to.

Last updated: December 2025

Debt Collective Toolkit

When to use it: You are organizing around debt as a site of collective action.

Note: Dated 2022 — confirm current contacts and tactics before relying on it.

Last updated: April 2022

MESA Advocacy Resource Center

When to use it: You want advocacy guidance, templates, and strategy materials from the Middle East Studies Association.

Last updated: Various dates

Researcher Support Consortium — Toolkit for Institutions Supporting Researchers

When to use it: Your institution, department, or administration wants to build structures that support researchers facing threats.

Last updated: December 2025

Right To Be — Bystander Intervention Training

When to use it: You witnessed harassment, in person or online, and want to learn how to step in safely. Free training in the "5Ds": Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, and Direct.

Last updated: Ongoing resource