News

Global Affairs Canada awards $1M in funding to Concordia-created anti-terrorism initiatives in the Middle East. The Canadian government recently awarded research funding to Concordia’s UNESCO co-chair in the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism, Vivek Venkatesh, who will receive $1,051,680 over two years for the development, implementation and evaluation of capacity building to counterterrorism in Lebanon, based on the SOMEONE (SOcial Media EducatiON Every day) initiative. More information here.

A Database for Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis In addition to the workshops being conducted in Lebanon and the “Hate to Hope” Massive Open Online Course, Project SOMEONE is developing a database to critically analyze online discourses related to themes and topics of interest to Lebanon and its neighbours. The database is intended to contribute to decision- and policy-making by researchers and public policy officials, as well as contributing to social action, counter-terrorism narratives and related practice by practitioners and community leaders internationally. The database will increase knowledge of patterns of online hate, extremism, misogyny and gender-based violence, and their uses for researchers,

New “Hate to Hope” Massive Open Online Course As part of our work with our Lebanese partners, Project Someone has developed “From Hate to Hope: Building Understanding and Resilience” which is a trilingual, interactive, non-credit Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Participants in the MOOC will: Explore the dynamics of hate including the ways in which people are manipulated to feel and express hate. Gain strategies for building resilience to hate through dialogue. Integrate best practices for using social media for advocacy. Analyze and develop strategies for using social media to build resilience in different sectors. Hate to Hope will be piloted in

Project Someone in Lebanon: An Overview Project SOMEONE in Lebanon has as its main objective the prevention of hate on social media platforms. With its 11 projects developed by collaborative research practitioners, we offer the Lebanese civic community a variety of curricular activities meant to open dialogue on understanding and building resilience against hate speech. While doing so, SOMEONE tailors those projects to best suit the needs of the community with which we work. Since April 2018 we have partnered with five local Lebanese NGOs who represent different minority groups. These include special needs individuals (Youth Association of the Blind

Terrorism and Violent Extremism in Canada: An opinion piece written by Vivek Venkatesh, Co-Chair UNESCO-PREV. The co-holder of the UNESCO Chair in the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism at Concordia University, Vivek Venkatesh, wrote an opinion letter in the newspaper “Le Devoir” highlighting the importance of the terrorist threat from far-right groups in Canada. More information here.

With nearly one hundred guests, the official launch of the UNESCO-PREV Chair took place on February 23, 2018, at the Université de Sherbrooke, in the presence of the Minister of International Relations and Francophonie, Christine St -Pierre, the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie of the Government of Canada, the Honorable Marie-Claude Bibeau, the Secretary-General of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, Mr. Sébastien Goupil and the Representative of the Government of Quebec from the Permanent Delegation of Canada to UNESCO, Mrs. Maria Mourani, the Rector of the Université de Sherbrooke, Mr. Pierre Cossette and the President of the Université