Scholars At Risk provides refuge for academics fleeing their countries for the crime of having spoken their minds.

In the U.S., a professor’s main concern is getting tenure. In many other countries, it’s just staying alive.
For Irakli Kakabadze, survival became his primary thought after he received the first threat in 2004. At the time, the country of Georgia was in state of political turmoil following the Rose Revolution, when massive public demonstrations led by opposition leaders succeeded in toppling the corrupt ruling regime.
As disorder engulfed the country, Kakabadze continued his work as a professor of nonviolent conflict resolution, and in the process he became a prominent peace and human rights activist in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. But, when he began filling in for a television anchor who had been arrested, the trouble began.
On air, Kakabadze started asking pressing questions about high-ranking officers—actions that brought him into conflict with a number of public officials. “At first, they call you and say, ‘be careful,’” Kakabadze explained. “But the most effective threat is when they hit you on the head.”
One evening in September of 2005, Kakabadze was ambushed and assaulted as he was walking home. Though he caught a glimpse of the attackers before they struck him, the blow caused him to lose consciousness. Upon waking with a second-degree concussion, he could no longer remember their faces.
Public activists denounced the attack as a scare tactic perpetrated by the ruling regime. The government responded by releasing a statement in which it pledged to investigate the matter, but no one was ever held accountable for the incident.
Nevertheless, Kakabadze continued his efforts. Two years after the attack, he staged a series of sit-in protests calling for the release of political prisoners. He called for a fair trial for a journalist who had been imprisoned as a way of censoring his criticisms of the government. In the months that followed, Kakabadze himself was arrested three times.
During this period, his wife, Anna Dolidze, a legal scholar who chaired an influential nonprofit that promoted democracy in Georgia, was publicly encouraged by the Minister of Defense to discontinue her work.
Desperate to escape the escalating persecution from the government, the couple contacted the Scholars at Risk Network for help.
Watch a video of Irakli and Anna, safely relocated in the U.S., talking about their experiences.The Network
Since its launch in 2000, the New York City-based nonprofit Scholars at Risk Network has partnered with universities in 20 countries to find placement for several hundred imperiled scholars from over a hundred countries. These scholars, in retaliation for either publishing or voicing criticisms of their home governments, have faced verbal, mental and physical abuse.
Its full-time staff, led by director Robert Quinn, cooperates with this growing international network of universities to defend the human rights of intellectuals and promote academic freedom.
The group’s relocation efforts are funded primarily by money it receives from nonpartisan foundations. Along with matching scholars with universities, which help them get a visa, the group also connects those it has placed with sources of legal aid and counseling.
Listen to other scholars helped by the Network describe the threats they faced in their home countries.Kakabadze and Dolidze, who now live in New York, are among the 33 scholars who were directly assisted last year.
Since relocating, Dolidze has earned a fellowship at the New York University School of Law. There, she pursues research in comparative constitutionalism among the Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. She also keeps a blog as an outlet for her concerns about her home country and as a way to network internationally with other interested individuals.
Since being granted asylum, Kakabadze and Dolidze have traveled several times to Washington, D.C. to raise awareness about the discrepancies between Georgia’s official policies—which have the support of the U.S.—and the less democratic domestic execution of the regime’s agenda.
But while stories like those of Kakabadze and Dolidze are encouraging, Scholars at Risk knows there is more to be done.
“It’s vitally important to help these people stay alive so we don’t lose their ideas,” said Quinn. “Because it’s trained, smart, creative, dedicated people that are going to make the future better everywhere.”
With our rollover graphic, learn about a few of the countries and scholars the Scholars at Risk has helped to find refuge, and the threats that they faced