What is ISIS? Why Do Canadians Join? - A Public Lecture
Speakers: Dr. Lorne Dawson, University of Waterloo and Dr. Amarnath Amarasingam, Dalhousie University
Date: Thursday March 19, 2015
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Location: AL 211
Abstracts:
Dr. Lorne Dawson: The research literature on terrorist radicalization is now vast and complex, yet our understanding of the process is still fragmentary and underdeveloped. This brief presentation has two purposes: to introduce you to the range of ideas and findings relevant to the study of the process by which so-called homegrown terrorists are radicalized and become violent, and to provide you with a plausible model of how this happens.
Dr. Amarasingam: In the last two years there has been much discussion in the media about “foreign fighters,” citizens of Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada and elsewhere, who have chosen to travel to Northern Africa and the Middle East to fight in conflicts that do not directly involve their countries. With reliable estimates of over 3000 Westerners fighting in Syria and Iraqi, joined by approximately 50-60 Canadians, the foreign fighter problem is now a predominant security concern for many nations. We will examine some of their life stories, push and pull factors, and ask a simple question: what makes them do it?
Speaker Bios:
Dr. Lorne Dawson is a Full Professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies and the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo. He has written three books, edited four books, and published over sixty academic articles and book chapters. Most of his research is in the sociology of religion, particularly the study of new religious movements, and he is perhaps best known for his book Comprehending Cults: The Sociology of New Religious Movements (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2006). His work on why some new religions become violent led to research on the process of radicalization in homegrown terrorist groups, which is now the primary focus of his research. He is the Co-Director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (www.tsas.ca ), and the co-editor of Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond (University of Toronto Press, 2014), in which he has a chapter on the Toronto 18 case. He has made numerous invited presentations on the radicalization of terrorists to academic and government groups (e.g., Defence Research and Development Canada, CSIS, Public Safety Canada, U.S. Homeland Security, Global Futures Forum, British Security Intelligence, Metropolis, Conference Board of Canada, the RCMP National Security Criminal Investigations Program, and RCMP INSET units), and is frequently interviewed in the media about terrorism.
Dr. Amarnath Amarasingam is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University and the Co-Principle Investigator for a study based at the University of Waterloo on Canadian foreign fighters. He is the author of Pain, Pride, and Politics: Sri Lankan Tamil Activism in Canada (forthcoming, University of Georgia Press). His research interests are in diaspora politics, post-war reconstruction, surveillance, social movements, radicalization and terrorism, media studies, and the sociology of religion. Dr. Amarasingam is a graduate of the WLU/UW Ph.D. program in Religious Diversity in North America.