MONTREAL — Quebec’s new UNESCO chair on the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism is the first of its kind in the world, say members of three universities who launched the project Friday in Sherbrooke, Que.
The research centre will be directed by a team of professors from Concordia University, Universite de Sherbrooke and Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
Co-director David Morin said the chair’s mission is to create a “pole of excellence” that will bring together experts in both research and field work.
“(The goal) is to be able to develop programs, to evaluate them and to support the political decision-makers and the stakeholders in the field on the subject of prevention of radicalization,” said Morin, a professor at the Universite de Sherbrooke.
He said the chair’s mission as well as its governance model make it a world first.
“What is unique in the world is a UNESCO chair that’s tripartite — that brings together three universities that signed the agreement with UNESCO — but beyond that, it’s the gathering of national and international partners that are coming together to share their expertise,” Morin said.
The project was conceived during the UNESCO conference on radicalization that Quebec hosted in 2016 and will become one of the international body’s 700 institutions in 116 countries that encourage inter-university cooperation around the world.
The centre has an international focus and will collaborate with a network of over 40 partners across North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Quebec has pledged $100,000 a year for the next four years to support the initiative.
The current staff includes a chairholder from each school as well as a scientific director based at Universite de Sherbrooke.