Upcoming webinar discusses the “Problems with Countering Extremism”

Upcoming webinar discusses the “Problems with Countering Extremism”

By Matthew Kincanon

Gonzaga University lecturer and author Joan Braune will be chairing a free webinar that discusses issues involving countering extremism on Wednesday, September 21, at 11 a.m.

The “Problems with ‘Countering Extremism’” webinar, which Braune organized, challenges the usefulness of the concept of “extremism” for understanding and resisting far-right and fascist movements.

Topics to be covered by the panel include the disproportionate negative impacts on Muslims and people of color by “Countering Violent Extremism” programs; the legal “Prevent duty” in the U.K., which mandates teachers and others to keep tabs on and report to the government on potential “radicalization” of students; problems involving the use of former members of “extremist” movements (“formers”) in projects to aimed at countering extremism; and how the “counter-extremism industry” fails to address the racism of the state, including the police.

Speakers will include Liz Fekete, director of the Institute of Race Relations and head of its European Research Programme; Dr Tarek Younis, senior lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University; Megan Kelly, doctoral student at the University of Basel and a research fellow at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism (IRMS); and Dr. Aaron Winter, senior lecturer in Sociology on Race and Anti-Racism at Lancaster University.

Free registration is available here.

The webinar is sponsored by the U.K.-based Network for the Ethics of Researching the Far Right (EthEx).