Lilienfeld Alliance
for the Teaching of Rational Skepticism in Higher Education
PRESS RELEASE ~ December 29, 2025 ~ PRESS RELEASE
The Lilienfeld Alliance is the recipient of the 2025 JREF Award
The Lilienfeld Alliance, an international organization of higher education professionals dedicated to promoting the teaching of critical thinking and rational skepticism, has been awarded a US$250,000 gift by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF).
The Alliance is preparing its third annual conference, LiliCon, for May 2026 in Fresno, California. Previous editions of LiliCon took place in Las Vegas (USA) and Edmonton, Alberta (Canada).
“We are deeply honored to receive this vote of confidence in our work,” says Kathleen Dyer, a professor of Child and Family Science from California State University, Fresno, and one of the founders of the Alliance. “It will help expand the scope of the annual conference and allow us to bring a new energy to the Alliance.” Microbiologist and science writer Natalia Pasternak, from Columbia University, another co-founder of the Lilienfeld Alliance, declared herself “humbled” by the legacy of the JREF Prize. Dyer and physicist Raymond Hall, also a co-founder of the Alliance, were both previous recipients. The 2024 winner was the McGill University Office for Science and Society.
The James Randi Educational Foundation was established by the late magician James “The Amazing” Randi, a towering figure in the history of modern rational skepticism. Among other feats, Randi was instrumental in debunking the tricks used by self-styled Israeli psychic Uri Geller to confound scientists and the public in the 1970s, and in discrediting the “water memory” experiments of the 1980s that purported to provide a scientific basis for homeopathy. The JREF prize is awarded to individuals or organizations that continue Randi’s legacy by combating pseudoscientists and scammers.
The Lilienfeld Alliance is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the purpose of which is to connect instructors who teach critical thinking at the college and university level, to advocate for course content that promotes rational skepticism, and to encourage further study of best practices in the pedagogy of teaching such courses. It is named after the late psychologist Scott Lilienfeld, who championed teaching approaches that explicitly challenge and correct false beliefs.
Membership is open to those who teach in a college or university, people retired from such work, or who are preparing for it. More information about the Alliance, the upcoming conference, and how to join, can be obtained on the website https://www.lilienfeldalliance.org/ or by writing to info@lilienfeldalliance.org
The goal of the Lilienfeld Alliance is to connect instructors who teach critical thinking at the college and university level, to advocate for course content that promotes rational skepticism, and to encourage further study of best practices in the pedagogy of teaching such courses.
By "rational skepticism" we refer to the practice of evaluating evidence for claims before taking a position. It generally involves investigating claims that go beyond mainstream established science, including pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and the like. This often requires us to challenge false beliefs. In higher education, we may use rational skepticism as a form of critical thinking.
We welcome scholars from all academic disciplines who use rational skepticism in their work.
The Alliance is named to honor Professor Scott Lilienfeld and his work that demonstrated the need to address pseudoscience directly in higher education, as described in this presentation:
Membership of the Lilienfeld Alliance is open to instructors in higher education, including community colleges and four-year universities, including those on the tenure track as well as lecturers. It is open to those who teach whole courses dedicated to rational skepticism and the use of refutation, as well as those who incorporate such teaching into their topical classes, and those who hope to find guidance for doing so in the future. We welcome former faculty, administrators, retired faculty, and students preparing for work in higher education.
Membership is not open to teachers in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. While we hope to combine our efforts with those teachers in the future, right now we are about higher education.
Natalia Pasternak describes the work of the Lilienfeld Alliance in this recent opinion piece. Pasternak, N. (2025). Higher education does not teach critical thinking by default. Times Higher Education.
