Jennifer Evans and Sandra Robinson Awarded SSHRC Connection Grant

Jennifer Evans (History) and Sandra Robinson (Communications) have received a SSHRC Connection Grant in support of a workshop and outreach program on Hate, Conspiracy Theories, and the Challenge to Democracy. In October 2025, local and international scholars from several different disciplines will gather at Carleton to discuss a range of historical and contemporary conspiracy theories from the late 19th to the 21st century. They will explore the similarities and differences of analog versus digital media to gather what we might learn from earlier struggles with hate and conspiratorial thinking while probing the particular challenges we face today with legacy and new media mainstreaming mis- and disinformation.

There will be a public talk on October 30th at Dominion Chalmers by MSNBC commentator and American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab director Cynthia Miller-Idriss entitled “The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism.” 

The grant generously supports Carleton research assistants who will gather the material generated in the workshop and several subsequent events to create a digital repository of resources for use by students, teachers, community and government stakeholders on the problem of historical mis- and disinformation and the manipulation of historical evidence through conspiracy and hate.

The overall aim of the event is to build informed, evidence based digital awareness and literacy.