The focus of this workshop was individuals’ experiences of, and engagement with, extremist ideas and beliefs – both jihadist and far-right – in a variety of different settings. Panellists explored the role of video games, music, humour and the occult in normalising extremism and assessed the extent to which this plays a role in radicalisation ...

VOX-Pol Guest Lecture Series, Spring 2023 Speaker: Dr. Erin Saltman Title: Cross-Platform Approaches to Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism Online Outline: This presentation reviews advances in cross-platform solutions advanced through the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). GIFCT was founded in 2017 by technology platforms to give structure and support for countering terrorism and ...

VOX-Pol Lecture Series, Spring 2023 Title: Emerging Methodologies Panel: Researching the Metaverse. Chair: Dr Suraj Lakhani (University of Sussex) Speaker 1: Dr Rachel Kowert Outline: “The Metaverse” is a phrase that is used often despite the fact that there is no clear consensus on how to define this space. In this short talk, we will ...

Content takedowns have emerged as one of the central pillars in the global fight against disinformation and extremism. Despite their increasing ubiquity as disruptive tools in political processes, their true efficacy remains up for debate. We ‘know’, for example, that takedowns had a strong disruptive effect on Islamic State-supporting networks online, but we do not ...

This workshop focusses on the phenomenon of extremism and especially online extremism in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. This workshop brought together academics researching extremism and Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) interventions in sub-Saharan Africa where both Islamist militant groups and far-right and alt-right groups operate. The workshop explored how extremist groups and individuals use the ...

VOX-Pol Guest Lecture Series, Autumn 2023 Name: Dr Anthony Richards Title: Conceptualising Terrorism: Challenges and Implications Outline: “Why is it important to generate an agreed definition of terrorism? What are the challenges that confront this and to what the extent can we view terrorism as an analytically distinctive concept?” ...

VOX-Pol Guest Lecture Series, Autumn 2023 Name: Dr Joe Whittaker Title: Catch 22: Researcher Welfare and Institutional Ethics within Online Terrorism and Extremism Research Outline: “Recent years have seen an increase in concern over the welfare of researchers who regularly engage with extremist and terrorist content online. This comprises external (such as death threats, doxing, ...

VOX-Pol Guest Lecture Series, Autumn 2023 Name: Kristina Kirk, Principal Advisor, Christchurch Call Unit, New Zealand Government Title: The Christchurch Call Outline: This presentation will discuss the establishment and evolution of The Christchurch Call, an initiative arising as a consequence of the livestreaming of an horrific terrorist event in New Zealand in 2019. The Call ...

VOX-Pol Guest Lecture Series, Autumn 2023 Name: J.M. Berger Title: The Conceptualisation of Extremism Online Outline: The rise of the online environment has been a game changer in enabling extremist movements to destabilize civil societies around the globe. This presentation explores the interface between extremism and the internet and presents contemporary approaches to understanding violent ...

VOX-Pol Guest Lecture Series, Autumn 2023 Name: Jonathan Collins Title: An Introduction to Netnography & Step-by-step Guide Outline: “New immersive methodologies are needed to better understand online extremist communities. The presentation will cover one of these (Netnography), providing an essential glimpse into this multifunctional tool and the benefits it offers to the field. The lecture ...