Inkblot Project Recognized for Challenging Extremism
The Inkblot Project, a student-led initiative at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University to educate the public on the evolving issue of violent extremism helmed by students in Professor Jessica Stern‘s IR 500 course, was recently recognized for developing a successful digital toolkit in challenging extremism.
The initiative received honorable mention for “Best Digital Tool or Toolkit” at the recent Peer to Peer: Challenging Extremism competition hosted by the United States Department of Homeland Security and EdVenture Partners on July 18, 2017 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington D.C.
Several Pardee School students who worked on the Inkblot Project traveled to Washington D.C. for the competition and received a plaque for their accomplishment. Marni Sheps (Pardee ’17) was one of the students who worked on the initiative and attended the competition.
“In studying the stories of those effected by violent extremism, finding patterns, and in turn building our toolkit, I have been reminded of the strength and resilience of the human spirit,” Sheps said. “With each instance of violent extremism in a given community, there is even more opportunity to ignite action based on a common cause to surpass our fears, and prevent another violent act. After attending the competition and winning the Honorable Mention it is evident that anyone can be an ambassador for peace because powerful stories demand an instant response, and that will bring the change we as a community need.”
Paige Pascarelli (Pardee ’17) also attended the competition, and said that seeing the variety of approaches to countering violent extremism was inspiring.
“Seeing the breadth of approaches to countering violent extremism, all generated by peers, was incredibly inspiring,” Pascarelli said. “We all seemed to touch on similar themes, for example, educating and empowering ‘bystanders’, but the amount of creativity and originality that each team brought to their campaigns made us feel hopeful that we can actually have an effect on countering extremism in some way.”
Justin O’Shea (Pardee ’17) attended the competition along with Sheps said Pascarelli, and said that receiving national recognition for a project that focused on tackling extremism with a human approach instead of through hard power was extremely encouraging.
“As one of our taglines says, ‘Human Solutions for Human Problems.’ Tackling this problem at a personalized level is an effective way to combat radicalization from occurring in the first place,” O’Shea said. “It is truly inspiring to see how so many different people work towards a common goal of fighting extremism from a social media perspective rather than the traditional way of simply using hard power. No matter where you’re from or what your experiences are, extremism a real problem that we must face at the beginning of the radicalization process, rather than at the end.”
Inkblot Project was also recently featured on Facebook’s Counterspeech website as one of only two U.S. campaigns to be featured.
“I am so proud of my students,” Stern said. “It was sheer joy for me to see them having so much fun while working so hard. And of course, I’m especially proud that they were one of only two US teams that were recognized by Facebook for their counter-terrorism campaign.”
Inkblot is a student-led initiative to educate the public on the evolving issue of violent extremism. By hosting public events featuring renowned experts, celebrities, and former violent extremists, we hope to engage uncommitted members of the population, who rarely consider the problem of violent extremism, despite its prevalence in today’s world and, more alarmingly, despite the susceptibility of anyone’s friends and family members to becoming a victim or a recruit of violent extremism.
In addition to high-profile public events, Inkblot continues its education effort through its presence on major social media platforms and its website. Content on this website will be updated regularly by our team, and will reflect current trends in the worldwide effort to disrupt, discredit and disregard venomous messages promoting violence in our communities.
The student-led initiative has also created an actionable component in conjunction with experts and informed by the latest research, known as the “Toolkit”. This component was designed with civic minded members of the community in mind, who are themselves compelled to be a part of the solution to violent extremism. For those with a friend or a family member currently lured by the propaganda of violent extremists, the Toolkit provides the instruments and techniques to intervene in the early process of radicalization, while reinforcing a message that counters or discredits that of violent extremists.