About us

The Tackling Hate Lab, led by A/Prof Matteo Vergani at Deakin University, produces original research and collaborates with scientists from universities across Australia and globally. Our mission is to generate rigorous, evidence-based data to shape effective policies and initiatives against hate and to train the next generation of researchers in hate and extremism. This website serves as a unique repository, offering insights from the Tackling Hate Lab, blog posts that present cutting-edge research and best practices for combating hate and extremism, free training modules, video interviews with international experts.

Tackling Hate Lab is committed to fostering a new culture for addressing hate and extremism through a comprehensive “whole of society” approach. This involves collaboration with civil society organisations, government agencies, law enforcement, and academics worldwide.

The key principles of our work are:

  • to build an evidence-based approach to research and policy, maintaining a victim-centred focus on harm reduction and victims’ needs;
  • to develop victim-centred, integrated, whole-of-society data collection systems and strategies to tackle hate and extremism;
  • to address all forms of hatred and extremism holistically, instead of compartmentalize responses to hate against specific communities.

Training
Modules

Check out our e-learning section to find what are the best training packages for your needs. We provide a wide array of multimedia and interactive resources to increase your understanding of theory and practice of tackling hate.

Ideas and
Research

Check out our blog section to stay on top of cutting-edge ideas and research from all over the world.

Video
Interviews

Watch our video-interviews with world experts discussing difficult questions about how to prevent hate and extremism.

International
Resources

Check our our curated list of international resources that include examples of reporting tools, online data repositories, guidelines and training program aiming at tackling hate.

Tackling Hate aims to build capacities to support incremental changes in the prevention and reduction of hate and extremism, including:

  • the improvement of data collection practices, with the aim of producing evidence to advocate for changes in policy and legislation, and to improve evaluation of policies and programs;
  • the support for victims of hate and extremism;
  • the sharing of ideas and knowledge from global cases;
  • the collaboration between governmental and non-governmental agencies;
  • the raising of awareness among communities that face hate and extremism victimisation.

Team and contributors

The establishment of the Tackling Hate website was supported by the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety and developed by A/Prof Vergani (Deakin University) in collaboration with Prof Gail Mason (University of Sydney), Prof Joshua Freilich (City University of New York) and Prof Steven Chermak (Michigan State University).

The core team who developed the training modules is:

Dr Matteo Vergani, Deakin University

Dr Carolina Navarro Medel, Deakin University and University of Chile

Prof Gail Mason, University of Sydney

Prof Steven Chermak, Michigan State University

Prof Joshua Freilich, City University of New York

Other project collaborators include:

Prof Greg Barton, Deakin University

Dan Goodhardt, Deakin University