Several SCI faculty members are participating in the Collaboratory Against Hate, a new initiative which seeks to develop effective interventions to inhibit every stage in the creation and growth of extremist hate groups and to minimize their destructive consequences. The center was launched by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University and will bring together the collective expertise from all relevant disciplines to better understand and combat hatred based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation and other prejudices. SCI faculty members Malihe Alikhani, Adriana Kovashka, Yu-Ru Lin, Diane Litman, Rebecca Morris, and Song Shi are among the affiliated researchers, and Lin is also part of the Steering Committee.
The Collaboratory Against Hate aspires to develop and support innovative multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and cross-university research aimed at understanding how extremist hate is generated, how it circulates in online and real-life spaces, and how it polarizes society and provokes harmful and illegal acts, especially toward communities of color and other minoritized groups. The center will study how extremist hate groups have changed the way they operate in the era of the internet and social media, working toward deciphering the extent to which virtual communities of hate are reinforcing each other or being pushed by organized extremist organizations.