Pardee Students Prepare Campaign to Combat Extremism
Students currently taking Professor Jessica Stern’s IR 500 Violent Extremism course at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University have the unique opportunity to develop and execute a campaign and social media strategy to combat extremism.
The project is part of the EdVenture Partners (EVP) competition that guides teams to prepare comprehensive reports showcasing their campaign plans from start to finish. EVP collects all submissions and facilitates first-round judging. Top teams are then invited to present their campaigns to clients who determine final winners.
As part of the competition, students taking IR 500: Violent Extremism have the opportunity to workshop and develop creative methods to counter terrorist recruitment. Students develop counter-narratives and digital dissemination tools including apps, videos, and comics to frustrate terrorists’ on-line recruitment efforts.
On January 27, 2017, Stern’s students had the opportunity to hear from a group of students from the University of Massachusetts Lowell who are currently working on a project for the EdVenture Partners competition. The campaign, entitled Operation 250, is aimed at educating children, parents and teachers about online safety and how to most effectively protect themselves from coming into contact with online violent extremist material and individuals.
Students in Stern’s class had the opportunity to provide feedback to the Operation 250 team, as well as ask questions about the process of developing their campaign.