Meet the Team
The CIFRS team is made up of an interdisciplinary group of early-career scholars and professionals located across Canada and the United States.
Executive Director
Mariel Cooksey (she/her)
Mariel’s research background focuses on Christianity and far-right extremism in the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on anti-Semitic and “Radical traditionalist” Catholic groups. She is currently researching the overlap between Gen Z internet culture, climate collapse and accelerationism.
Co-Director of Research
Dr. Luc Cousineau (he/they)
Luc’s research is divided between critiques of masculinity, men’s rights, leisure online and the study of employee surveillance software. His research centers gender and power in work and leisure, with a particular focus on how masculinities are understood and interact with lives online.
Co-Director of Research
Dr. Amy Mack (she/her)
Amy’s research focuses on the resurgence of ethno-nationalist and white supremacist movements in Canada, and their use of social media to build communities and circulate their ideologies. She is currently researching their narratives of white male victimhood, belonging, and entitlement.
Director of Communications
Kat Fuller (they/them)
Fuller’s research interests include masculinities, sexuality, social movements, post-colonialism, critical theory, and the online environment. He focuses on how gender and sexuality play a part in politics, especially within social (virtual) spaces, as people form a collective identity by accepting Western centrism.
Senior Fellow
Dr. Emilie El Khoury (she/her)
Emilie's research focuses on violent extremist groups such as the Islamic State group (Daesh). She studies the consequences of violence on the victims and relatives of members of armed group. She is particularly interested in the links between religion and violence, the different types of radicalization leading to violence, Islamophobia, gender studies, refugees and racism.
Senior Fellow
Dr. Paulo Ravecca (he/him)
Paulo uses critical political theories to engage with contemporary issues, far-right politics amongst them. He is author of The Politics of Political Science: Re-Writing Latin American Experiences.
Senior Fellow
Ryan Hopkins (he/him)
Ryan’s research engages with social media platforms to analyze how far-right rhetoric spreads via online spaces. He has specific interest on discourses surrounding the themes of masculinity, [anti]immigration, white genocide, and mythology.
Senior Fellow
Asher Goldstein (he/him)
Asher’s research focuses on the networks of disinformation connecting extractive industries to settler supremacist movements in Canada, and their use of the vehicle of the think tank to provide cover for diverse forms of Canadian extractivism.
Senior Fellow
Ruxi Gheorghe (she/they)
Ruxi M Gheorghe, MA, MSW, RSW, is a social worker and doctoral candidate at Carleton University's School of Social Work in Ottawa, Canada. Her doctoral research is concerned with articulations of toxic masculinity in direct therapeutic practice. Her broader research focus is on intersections between the online incel community, mental health, and exiting strategies.
Senior Fellow
Kayla Preston
Kayla Preston is a PhD candidate in the department of sociology at the University of Toronto. Her areas of interest include student activism, gender, political sociology, and race and colonization. Currently, Kayla is conducting research on youth activism in Canada and the United States. Broadly, she is interested in why and how young people (aged between 18-36) decide to get involved in social and political organizing.
Junior Fellow
K Mah (she/her)
K's research draws attention to and fosters conversations around structural violence. Her focus is on critical public health and anti-masking groups. Her most recent project critically analyzed the Freedom Fighters.
Junior Fellow
Nur Helvali (she/her)
Nur’s research is focused on preventing violent extremism and countering terrorism mainly in the Middle East. She has previously worked on Jihadist terror groups and forced migration from the region. Currently, she is working on the intersection of far-right extremism and Islamic terrorism.
Junior Fellow
Diana Wallens (she/her)
Diana's research interests include the study of far-right extremist movements in Canada, the United States, and Europe, particularly QAnon conspiracists, Neo-Confederate, and Neo-Nazi groups. Currently, she is studying the parallels between the Canadian Trucker Convoy and the "Stop the Steal!" movement as well as the history and future of Nick Fuentes' Groyper Army.
Junior Fellow
Karmvir Padda
Karmvir Padda is currently a Ph.D. student in the Sociology and Legal Studies department at the University of Waterloo. Her research mainly focuses on radicalization, extremists' use of the internet, right-wing extremism, online foreign interference (disinformation), research methods and methodology, and computational social science.
Junior Fellow
Emelia Sandau
Emelia’s research interests lie at the intersection of anti-2SLGBTQ+ movements and K-12 education. Her current research examines the impact of parental rights groups on the education system. Through her work, she aims to leverage academia in support of queer activism.
Affiliate
Dr. Quinnehtukqut McLamore (they/them)
Quinnehtukqut's research is strongly multi-method and wide-spanning: in general, they focus on “common knowledge,” narratives, extremism, and processes related to group identification. They have a particular interest in anti-trans misinformation and pseudoscientific "common knowledge" about history.
Affiliate
Dan Collen (he/him)
Dan is a co-creator of Hatepedia.ca. He is a researcher and educator of hate movements and disinformation in Canada who has reported on Canadian far-right and conspiracy movements since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dan’s research has focused on contemporary propaganda, including internet memes, by far-right movements in Canada.
Affiliate
Dr. Maxwell Kennel (he/him)
Maxwell's research focuses on social violence, political theologies of time and history, social accountability and health equity, and critiques of conspiratorial thinking. He is the author of Postsecular History: Political Theology and the Politics of Time , Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement, and a forthcoming book Critique of Conspiracism: Critical Theory, Religion, and the Limits of Conspiratorial Reason (under contract).