Dr. Aaron McKain, M.S.L.
professor | executive director
artist & curator I communications strategist I consultant I coach
Dr. Aaron McKain, M.S.L.
professor I executive director
artist & curator I comm strategist
speaker I consultant I coach
professor | advocate | executive director I artist & curator | communication strategist
Dr. Aaron McKain, M.S.L.
Technology Ethics, Policy, & Law
Free Speech
Bipartisan Coalition Building
Education Leadership & Innovation
Arts Advocacy & Creative PR Solutions
Mental Health & Resilence
My Story /Solutions
Technology Ethics, Politics, & Law
Free Speech & 1st Amendment
Fixing Higher Education
Bipartisan Coalition Building
In 2018, I left liberal higher ed and became an ideological diversity hire
at an Evangelical college to try to
(a) to fix the free speech crisis destroying our colleges and
(b) bring conservatives, liberals, Christians, Muslims, and Jewish-Americans
back together to fight against the technology tearing us apart.
Here's the crazier part: It worked.
Me, my new Jesus-loving students, and a childhood friend from across the aisle
started the Institute for Digital Humanity.
Everyone thought we were crazy. Here's the crazier thing: It worked.
And then a bullet came flying through my living room window and everything went to hell.
Now we're back.
Me, my new Jesus-loving students, and a childhood friend from across the aisle
started the Institute for Digital Humanity.
Everyone thought we were crazy. Here's the crazier thing: It worked.
The problem is code and culture.
NBC KARE-11: MINNEAPOLIS
FORBES I OMAHA WORLD HERALD
NBC AFFILIATES
(TOLEDO, HOUSTON, SACREMENTO)
HUMAN LAWYER I PIONEER PREESS
NEXT GENERATION POLITICS I AI & YOU
In 2018
I left liberal higher education and became a diversity hire at an Evangelical college
to try to fix this AI ethics
and college free speech mess.
The goal was to bring the left and right
--and Christians, Muslims,
and Jewish-Americans --
back together to:
fight against the technology and toxic
political culture
tearing us apart.
Me, my new students, and a childhood friend from across the aisle
started the Institute for Digital Humanity.
Everyone thought we were crazy.
Here's the crazier thing: It worked.
Then I got shot at in my living room.
The Evangelicals lost $$$ for hosting the Floyd memorial.
And me and the kids we're laid off.
Now we're back. Because the cavalry ain't coming folks. And we got 8 months to fix this mess or we're all screwed.
Technology Ethics, Policy, & Law
Free Speech & Academic Freedom
Bipartisan Coalition Building
Education Leadership & Innovation
Arts Advocacy & Creative PR Soutions
A BIPARTSIAN BLUEPRINT
TO FIX OUR COLLEGES, AI, AND POST-DIGITAL AMERICA. AT THE SAME TIME.
We have a simple, holistic, 2,000 year old method to fix the whole mess. And our Black Mirror meets Dead Poet's Society story is so bananas we are currently writing a book and hustling cash for a documentary and podcast.
NBC KARE-11: MINNEAPOLIS
FORBES I OMAHA WORLD HERALD
NBC AFFILIATES
(TOLEDO, HOUSTON, SACREMENTO)
HUMAN LAWYER I PIONEER PREESS
NEXT GENERATION POLITICS I AI & YOU
Technology Ethics,
Policy, & Law
Twenty years of proven ideas and actual solutions
for a just, free, and sane post-digital world
for everyone
Twenty years of proven ideas and actual solutions
for a just, free, and sane post-digital world
for everyone
NBC KARE-11: MINNEAPOLIS
October 2021
FORBES
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD
NBC: TOLEDO, HOUSTON, SACREMENTO
HUMAN LAWYER I PIONEER PRESS
NEXT GENERATION POLITICS
AI & YOU I
"After Facebook Scandal, Local
College Students Take On Big Tech"
Technology Ethics, Policy,
Politics, Culture, & Law
Twenty years of proven ideas and actual solutions
for a just, free, and sane post-digital world
for everyone
Because the problem is code, culture, and Constitutional norms.
And if we don't fix it now
-- or keep letting partisan hacks on both sides program in their ideological insanity --
we're all screwed.
Executive Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Digital Humanity
Visiting Scholar
OSTROM Working Group
Indiana University
Consultant
Anti-Defamation League
Co-Founder
Commonplace (McGraw-Hill)
Twenty years of proven ideas and actual solutions
for a just, free, and sane post-digital world for everyone
Executive Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Digital Humanity
Visiting Scholar
OSTROM Working Group
Indiana University
Consultant
Anti-Defamation League
Co-Founder
Commonplace (McGraw-Hill)
Executive Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Digital Humanity
Visiting Scholar
OSTROM Working Group
Indiana University
Consultant
Anti-Defamation League
Co-Founder
Commonplace (McGraw-Hill)
Bi-Partisan Civic Engagement &
Coalition Building
Thank you to my partners, clients, and allies:
For proving that all Americans can stop cancelling each other and re-embrace our common humanity.
Thank you to my partners, clients, and allies:
For proving that all Americans can still come together and re-embrace
our common humanity.
ACLU MINNESOTA
ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
LITTLE EARTH NATIVE HUD COMMUNITY
CODED BIAS (NETFLIX)
BYTES MEDIA
TAKE ACTION MINNESOTA
MN LEGAL RIGHTS CENTER
CIVIC NEBRASKA
MN EQUAL JUSTICE RESEARCH CENTER
MN DEPT. OF HEALTH
SAFETY NOT SURVEILLANCE
GUNS DOWN, LOVE UP
PROTECT MN
SECOND CHANCE COALITION
URBAN EDUCATORS
RECLAIM THE BLOCK
ACLU NEBRASKA
EDUCATION AND TRAININGS
NORTH CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
INDIANA UNIVERSITY: OSTROM WORKING GROUP
HAMLINE UNIVERSITY
CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY
UNIV OF WISCONSIN: LA CROSSE
ST. PAUL PUBLIC SCHOOLS
IOWA BAR ASSOCIATION
NEBRASKA BAR ASSOCIATION
DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF LITERACY NARRATIVES
NORTH SUBURBAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
NORTHEAST SCULPTURE GALLERY
MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
STEVE FLETCHER
ABDI WARSAME
LATRISHA VETAW
PHILIPE CUNNINGHAM
SAINT PAUL CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
MITRA JILALI
NELSIE YANG
RICHFIELD, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
SIMON TRAUTMANN
MINNESOTA STATE HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES & SENATORS
PEGGY SCOTT
SCOTT LUCERO
DR. STEVE JENSEN
JEREMY MUNSON
ACLU MN I ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
RECLAIM THE BLOCK I URBAN EDUCATORS
LITTLE EARTH NATIVE HUD COMMUNITY
NATIVE YOUTH ARTS CENTER
INSTITUTE FOR DIGITAL HUMANITY IPROJECT MN
SECOND CHANCE MN
GUNS DOWN, LOVE UP
INSTITUTE FOR DIGITAL HUMANITY
NORTH SURBURBAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
NORTH CENTRAL UNIVERSITY I HAMLINE UNIVERSITY
THE DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF LITERACY NARRATIVES
Free Speech and Bi-Partisan Coalition Building
Two decades of cutting-edge teaching, curriculum, research, and advocacy to fight for free speech and catalyze allegedly impossible cross-cultural conversations.
Two decades of cutting-edge teaching, curriculum, research, and advocacy to fight for free speech and catalyze allegedly impossible cross-cultural conversations.
Two decades of cutting-edge
teaching, curriculum, research, and advocacy
to fight for free speech and catalyze allegedly impossible cross-cultural conversations.
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national First Amendment orgs
Currently Working On:
Leveling up a plug and play K-law school interactive post-digital free speech curriculum
and cross-cultural civic deliberation platform.
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national
First Amendment orgs
Currently Seeking Investors & Partners On
A plug and play K-law school interactive post-digital free speech curriculum and civic deliberation program.
Two decades of cutting-edge
teaching, curriculum, research, and advocacy to fight for free speech and catalyze allegedly impossible cross-cultural conversations.
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national First Amendment orgs
Currently Working On:
A plug and play K-law school -- plus professional trainings for advocates and attorneys -- interactive
post-digital free speech curriculum
and cross-cultural civic deliberation platform.
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national
First Amendment orgs
Currently Working On
Leveling up a plug and play k-law school interactive
post-digital free speech
curriculum and cross-cultural civic deliberation platform
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national First Amendment orgs
Currently Working On:
A plug and play K-law school -- plus professional trainings for advocates and attorneys -- interactive
post-digital free speech curriculum
and cross-cultural civic deliberation platform.
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national
First Amendment orgs
Currently Seeking Investors & Partners On
A plug and play K-law school interactive post-digital free speech curriculum and civic deliberation program.
Higher Education
Leadership & Innovation
Experience from the adjunct basement to the President's office.
And probably the only prof who taught free speech and digital ethics at a Bible college and the wokest school in America.
Probably the only prof who taught free speech and digital ethics
at a Bible college and the wokest school in America.
It ain't the kids screwing everything up, folks.
Director/Associate Professor
North Central University
Assistant Professor
Hamline University
Speechwriter/Communication Strategist
Office of the President
Ohio State University
Higher ed experience from the adjunct basement to the president's office,
with a million hilarious stories in between.
Which is good, because watching our colleges destroy themselves is depressing AF.
Experience from the adjunct basement to the President's office.
And probably the only prof who taught free speech and digital ethics at a Bible college and the wokest school in America.
Director/Associate Professor
North Central University
Assistant Professor
Hamline University
Speechwriter
Office of the President
Ohio State University
Arts Advocacy &
Creative PR Solutions
Because art is the answer when words stop working.
Because art is the answer
when words stop working
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars, and advocates
Produces Art About:
Digital Civil Rights, Technological Racism, Mental and Physical Health, Disability, Gun Violence,
Post-Digital America
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars,
and advocates
Produces Art About;
Digital Civil Rights, Mental & Physical Health
Disability, Gun Violence,
Post-Digital America
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars, and advocates
Produces Art About:
Digital Civil Rights, Technological Racism,
Mental and Physical Health, Disability,
Gun Violence, Post-Digital America
Because art is the answer
when words stop working
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars,
and advocates
Produces Art About
Digital Civil Rights, Mental & Physical Health
Disability, Gun Violence,
Post-Digital America