Introducing the 2019-2020 Global Research Initiative Fellows

The Dangerous Speech Project is thrilled to introduce our 2019-2020 Global Research Initiative (GRI) Fellowship cohort. These inaugural Fellows will be the first in a worldwide network of researchers in countries where Dangerous Speech abounds. Members will support each other to advance research and intervention projects. This year’s class of Fellows was chosen from a highly competitive pool of students, scholars, and members of civil society. Each Fellow will complete a detailed case study on their selected topic, discuss their work with other Fellows, and share their results on the DSP’s blog. The Fellows’ work will help us continue to advance our understanding of Dangerous Speech and how it operates in a variety of contexts. A list of Fellows along with brief descriptions of their projects is below.

• Achol Jok Mach, South Sudan. Mach will study the use of hate speech by South Sudanese politicians and whether it has influenced the diaspora to encourage more conflict, both online and offline.
• Álex Cabo Isasi, Spain. Isasi will analyze far-right Islamophobic speech in Spain, where there has been a recent rise of the far-right party VOX.
• Alexandra DiBranco, USA. DiBranco will examine misogynist speech in the United States (with a particular focus on “incels” —men who identify as “involuntarily celibate” and view their lack of sexual access to women as an injustice) analyzing increasing male supremacist ideology online, its political influence and appearance in mainstream discourse, and its contribution to violence.
• Ana Cristina Nuñez, Venezuela. Using the Dangerous Speech framework,  Nuñez will explore dehumanizing speech used by the President of Venezuela to refer to the political opposition and dissenters during compulsory blanket presidential broadcasts (known as cadenas).
• Annet Matebwe, South Africa. Matebwe will analyze anti-immigrant speech by various political and cultural leaders in South Africa. Such speech has fallen short of being declared hate speech by South African courts despite potentially inciting xenophobia which is now a nationwide crisis.
• Eren Sozuer, Turkey. Sozuer will examine speech against Syrian refugees in Turkey. Turkey hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country, and they are increasingly targeted by media outlets and opposition politicians who disseminate divisive rhetoric and misinformation on social media.
• Eriko Lau, Hong Kong. Lau’s case study will explore the misleading and discriminatory speech made by pro-establishment parties in Hong Kong against individuals making asylum claims in the country.
• Jake Wallis, Australia. Australia’s far-right are using new media ecosystems to target large, politically-engaged audiences on social media. Wallis will analyze how these groups use language and news-style content framing, digital media (podcasts, imagery and memes) and social media channels to seed mainstream Australian political discourse with Dangerous Speech.
• Prabhir Vishnu Poruthiyil, India. Poruthiyil will use discourse analysis of content from right-wing English-language portals to study what can be called “performative sectarianism” among significant sections of Indian elites, demonstrated by their apathy and enthusiasm for the systematic denials of civil liberties of minorities and dissenters.

More information about this year’s class of Fellows and past GRI researchers is here.