VOX-Pol is convening a two-day academic workshop in London on 16 – 17 October on research into online jihadism from beyond the English-language literature. The event will take place in King’s College London, a VOX-Pol partner institution.
Social scientists have approached online jihadism from distinctive perspectives across Europe and the Middle East, depending on the cultural and political context in which this issue has recently been debated. Beyond the English-language literature, researchers have collected and explored different empirical evidence to understand and counter this phenomenon in their country-specific environment. Despite offering a highly original insight into the field of violent online political extremism, these alternative sources of expertise are hardly relayed in the English-speaking world.
The objective of this workshop is to contribute to bridging this gap by bringing together panels of international experts from Europe and the Middle East to explore some of the findings that have been disseminated in languages other than English. Counter-radicalisation experts, anthropologists, political scientists and scholars in Islamic studies will comment on their research in applying counter-narrative strategies in non-English-speaking countries. The workshop will comprise seven sessions covering different questions related to online propaganda, such as how to identify vulnerable audiences, what the relationship between online and offline is, and to what extent does the medium impact the message. The event will include a roundtable session with guest speakers from a range of countries including Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and France. Simultaneous translation in Arabic and French will be available for members of the audience.
The contact email address for the workshop is events@icsr.info.
Speakers include:
Abdullah al-Saud – Recruitment Strategies and Vulnerable Audiences [chairing]
Abdulmunam Almushawah –الإرهاب الإلكتروني .. قصّة لم تنته [Cyberterrorism… The Story Is Not Over]
Charlie Winter – Social Media Censorship in the Islamic State
Dalia Ghanem Yazbeck – The Female Face of the Islamic State’s Online Propaganda [remote presentation]
Dounia Mahlouly – Raising Awareness and Impacting Future Policy [chairing]
Fatima Alsalem – Preventing Extremism Among Kuwaiti Youth: A Study Exploring Socio-Political Factors
Joanna Paraszczuk – Online and Offline Radicalization: The Russian Perspective
Mohamed Abdelouahab Rafiqui – The Influence of One’s Close Circle on Jihadi Enrolment [remote presentation]
Mona Alami – Identifying Push and Pull Factors: Raising Awareness and Impacting on Future Policy
Myriam Benraad – Exploiting ‘Moral Shocks,’ Gathering the ‘Vengeful’: The Islamic State’s Online Mobilisation
Rajan Basra – Does the Medium Determine the Message? [chairing]
Sasha Gordon – Seeing is Believing: The Necessity of Offline Campaigns in CVE