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ROPH'20 Conference

Abstract

Democratic societies are facing a new challenge: Frequent and intense online political hostility. Hostility is apparent in conversations about politics between citizens, and between elites, and is arguably also a defining feature a lot of “fake news”. The ROPH’20 conference takes stock of our current knowledge about online political hostility and identify the next big questions we need to solve. The backbone of the conference will be a series of plenary talks by leading figures from diverse academic disciplines including political science, communication science, and psychology. The conference will also host roundtable discussions with practitioners and two poster sessions to facilitate dissemination of cutting-edge research. We expect considerable interest from representatives of media and practitioners. The ROPH’20 conference marks the launch of the five-year Research on Online Political Hostility (ROPH) project, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation.


Speakers

Diana Mutz, University of Pennsylvania. USA

Michael Hogg, Claremont Graduate University, USA

Sander van der Linden, University of Cambridge, UK

Lilliana Mason, University of Maryland, USA

Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol, UK

Jason Reifler, University of Exeter, UK

Alexandra Siegel, Stanford University, USA

Patricia Rossini, University of Liverpool, UK

Michael Bang Petersen, Aarhus University, Denmark


Roundtables

"How to counter online disinformation?" with

- Martin Ruby (Head of Public Policy in Northern Europe, Facebook)

- Lisbeth Knudsen (Editor-in-chief at Mandag Morgen, Chairman of the Board of the School of Media and Journalism of Denmark)

- Anja Bechmann (Professor, Aarhus University, member of EU's High Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation)

"How to counter online hate and harassment?" with

- Maria Ventegodt (PhD, The Danish Institute for Human Rights)

- Claus Noer Hjorth (Head of Section, The Danish Media Council)

- Ann-Sophie Hemmingsen (Chief Advisor, Danish Centre for Prevention of Extremism)

- Lasse Lindekilde (Professor and Chair of the Research Unit on Radicalization and Prevention of Extremism at Aarhus University)


 

CLOSED: Submission of poster proposals

An important aim of the conference is to facilitate networking in an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners interested in political hostility, broadly defined. Accordingly, there will be great emphasis on the two poster sessions hosted during the conference. Each poster session will be held at a central location of the venue, will be accompanied by either drinks or snacks and will contain a select number of presenters to avoid overcrowding.

We invite both junior and established researchers interested in causes, consequences or counter-measures related to political hostility to submit 300-word abstracts proposing a poster. The conference embraces interdisciplinarity, and is open to submissions from all fields, but we particularly welcome submissions from political science, psychology, anthropology, and computer science. 

The deadline for submission is Oct 28 and decision letters will be send out in early November.
To submit your proposal, click here.


Registration and conference fee

The conference is open to all: students, researchers, industry, and the public. To attend the conference including catering during lunch and coffee breaks and the poster sessions, a fee of DKK 350,- applies and registration is necessary. We offer a discounted price of DKK 150,- for students. Attending the talks excluding catering is free of charge, but we kindly ask you also to register.

Registration for the conference and the dinner is online via this registration page.

Deadline for registration is 9 January 2020.

  • Conference fee: DKK 350,-
  • Student reduced conference fee: DKK 150,-
  • Conference dinner: DKK 550,-  A 3-course dinner including wine/ refreshmens at restaurant No16.
  • The address of Restaurant No16: Europaplads 16, 8000 Aarhus  


Organizers

Michael Bang Petersen, AIAS Former Fellow and Professor at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University. Principal investigator Research on Online Political Hostility Project.

Alexander Bor, Post-doc, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University.


Funding

The conference is co-funded by the Carlsberg Foundation & AIAS.