Insights from Former Extremists

This project draws from the voices of those who have engaged in hatred, namely, former extremists, sharing their experiences and thoughts on how to build resilience against radicalization leading to violent extremism and hatred. Voices of law enforcement officials and community-based activists are also included in these discussions, all in an effort to develop multi-stakeholder, evidence-based strategies and learning material to combat violent extremism and hatred in Canada.

 

Team

Ryan Scrivens PhD

Ryan Scrivens is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Ryan served as a Horizon Postdoctoral Fellow at Concordia University with Project Someone between 2017 and 2019.
LinkedIn
Website
Vivek Venkatesh PhD

Vivek Venkatesh is UNESCO co-Chair in Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism, and Professor of Inclusive Practices in Visual Arts in the Department of Art Education at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University. He is an interdisciplinary and applied learning scientist who investigates the psychological, cultural and cognitive factors impacting the design, development and inclusive adoption of digital media in educational and social contexts.
Website
Maxime Bérubé PhD

Maxime Bérubé is a professor of Forensic science in the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. He holds a PhD in criminology from Université de Montréal and he is a regular researcher at the Laboratoire de recherche en criminalistique (LRC), as well as an SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Project Someone in 2019–2020. His research interests focus on digital data processing, investigation, intelligence, national security and violent extremism.

LinkedIn
Tiana Gaudette

Tiana Gaudette is a Research Associate at the International CyberCrime Research Centre (ICCRC) at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and a Research Assistant on a Public Safety Canada-funded project exploring the landscape of right-wing extremism in Canada. Her research interests broadly include terrorists’ and extremists’ use of the Internet, cyberterrorism, and right-wing extremism. Tiana recently earned an MA in criminology from SFU.

Ashley Montgomery

Ashley S. Montgomery is a doctoral student in Education at Concordia University. Her research explores secondary and tertiary preventative frameworks of radical ideologies within education institutions, the evaluation of youth prevention programs, and pedagogical strategies for resilience in at-risk youth. Currently, Montgomery invests her time in local community programs, providing support and tools of evaluation.
Méi-Ra St-Laurent

Méi-Ra St-Laurent is completing a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the SSHRC with the Someone Project team (Concordia University), where she is producing a podcast, which deals with the controversy of "political correctness" in the North American context of popular music. Méi-Ra holds a doctorate in musicology from Université Laval (Québec). Her academic interests aim to better understand the way in which the music emanating from a society at a given time reflects the social and political issues characterizing it.
Ramya Panchacharam

Ramya Panchacharam is an undergraduate student in Honours Political Science at Concordia University. As a co-op student, Ramya had the opportunity to work as a research assistant with Project SOMEONE. Her research explored former extremists’ perceptions on prevention strategies and radicalism to better understand the role of pedagogy and education in preventing radicalization and violent extremism.