Welcome to Volume 6 Issue 2 of the VOX-Pol Newsletter.
If you have colleagues or friends who may be interested in the content of our newsletter, or in any VOX-Pol events and research, please forward this to them and encourage them to subscribe via our website. Follow us on Twitter @VOX_Pol for live updates and releases.
Yours Sincerely,
The VOX-Pol Team
FORTHCOMING VOX-Pol EVENTS
VOX-Pol Summer School, Dublin (June 2019)
The week-long VOX-Pol Summer School is being held at Dublin City University from 10 to 14 June. It is designed to provide PhD students, post-doctoral and early career researchers with an introduction to the role of the internet in contemporary violent extremism(s) and terrorism. The course will employ a mixed-methods teaching style and will include lectures, discussion and small group work. Sessions will be led by experts from across fields, including research, policy making, internet industries and civil society. Following an open call for applicants, all participants have now been selected for the course. You can, however, follow proceedings on twitter via the hashtag #voxpolsummsch19. Details of our 2016 Summer School are HERE.
RECENT VOX-Pol EVENTS
Workshop on Extreme Right Activity, Swansea (March 2019)
The inaugural Radical Right Research International Network workshop on the topic of the extreme and far right took place at Swansea University on 6 and 7 March. The workshop was convened by Professor Nuria Lorenzo-Dus and Dr Lella Nouri of Swansea University, and VOX-Pol’s Coordinator Prof. Maura Conway of Dublin City University. The workshop featured sessions on Current Trends, Insights into Current Online/Offline Activities, Hate Speech & Social Media, and Identity Constructions. Day two’s discussions covered methodological issues. We’ll keep you posted regarding next steps in the Network’s evolution. In the meantime, anybody with a particular interest should drop a line to our Swansea University colleague Dr. Lella Nori at l.m.nouri@swansea.ac.uk.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO OTHER EVENTS
TASM Conference, Swansea (June 2019)
We were delighted to sponsor a number of travel awards for the 2019 Terrorism and Social Media (TASM) conference, which will take place at Swansea University’s Bay Campus from 25 to 26 June 2019. The conference, composing four keynotes and 24 breakout sessions featuring 72 speakers, will bring together a range of researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners from a wide array of countries and disciplinary backgrounds. Register to attend the conference HERE or follow the action on Twitter via the dedicated #TASMConf hashtag.
ECTC Advisory Network Conference, Europol HQ (April 2019)
We were pleased to sponsor a reception for all attendees on the evening of Day 1 of Europol’s third annual European Counter-terrorism Centre (ECTC) conference, held at Europol headquarters in The Hague on 9 to 10 April. Both VOX-Pol’s Maura Conway and Moign Khajawa presented at the two-day conference on Terrorism Evolving: Insights from Research. The event attracted an audience of 250 from the public and private sector, with law enforcement agencies particularly strongly represented.
Addressing the New Landscape of Terrorism, Rabat (April 2019)
Building upon the Melbourne (2016) and Bangkok (2017) conferences, the third edition of the Addressing the New Landscape of Terrorism international conference series took place from 22 to 24 April 2019 in Rabat, Morocco. VOX-Pol Academic Advisory Board member Dr Brigitte Nacos (Columbia University) delivered a keynote presentation at the event. You can read more about the event HERE.
Public Safety Canada’s Event Series (March 2019)
VOX-Pol’s Coordinator, Prof. Maura Conway (Dublin City University) was in Ottawa, Canada from 24 to 27 March 2019, for a week-long event series, organised by Public Safety Canada’s Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence, to further Canada’s National Strategy on Countering Radicalization to Violence. The Canada Centre’s 2019 Event Series brought together experts on violent radicalisation and encouraged collaboration across sectors to address the issue.
IN THE MEDIA
- Five of the top far-right figures are British. We’re world leaders in hate, Wired, 21 February 2019
- The Dangerous Spread of Extremist Manifestos, The Atlantic, 26 February 2019
- The neo-Nazi plot against America is much bigger than we realize, The Guardian, 3 March 2019
A large amount of news articles were published around the topic of violent online political extremism after the Christchurch shooting in March. VOX-Pol partners supplied expert commentary for news and media, including:
- Christchurch shootings: Social media races to stop attack footage, BBC, 16 March 2019
- New Zealand mosque terror attack: Why you shouldn’t share the suspected shooters’ propaganda, inews, 15 March 2019
- ‘White-genocide theory’ a core motivation for extreme far-right terrorists, The Journal, 15 March 2019
- The New Zealand shooter wrote a manifesto. An extremism expert explains what it means, Vox, 18 March 2019
- Author Says New Zealand Massacre Points To A Global Resurgence Of ‘Extremism’, WVTF, 25 March 2019