CMU, Pitt create center to study, halt extremism
Two-plus years after a deadly Pittsburgh synagogue attack drove home the toll of extremist hate, the city’s two leading research universities are creating what they hope is a unique approach to thwarting a rise in extremism.
Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh on Wednesday announced they will jointly operate the Collaboratory Against Hate — Research and Action Center.
Its aim not only is to study extremist views and activity but also to “develop effective tools that inhibit hate’s creation, growth and destructive consequences,” stated both universities in announcing the scholarly venture.
The center, and what will eventually be dozens of researchers, will draw from the combined expertise at both universities in such areas as computer science, data science, social sciences, psychology, psychiatry and the law.
In addition to using campus expertise, the center will engage with other universities and community groups, including those representing social groups that are the targets of extremism, as well as social media platforms.
The goal is to “better understand and combat hatred based on race, ethnicity, religion,
gender identity, sexual orientation and other prejudices,” the joint statement said.
“The spread of extremist hate is undeniably insidious and increasingly dangerous. We have witnessed its violent consequences in our own community, including the horrific attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building, and have also seen this epidemic pose an existential threat to our nation’s democracy,” said Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian.
“We’ve launched Collaboratory Against Hate with a clear purpose: to mobilize our experts and assets together so that we can better understand and address extreme hate — in its many iterations and implications — across the world,” said Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher.
The physical manifestations of intolerance range from property damage to injuries — as seen in a spike in attacks against Asian Americans and other groups of late — to deaths.
It is playing out on city streets, in houses of worship and even in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in many cases linked to views spread on social media.
The center’s genesis is rooted in soul-searching after the Tree of Life tragedy in Squirrel Hill that rocked the nation.
Across the U.S., the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks and reports on hate crimes, said it was following more than 800 hate groups as of 2020, including three dozen in Pennsylvania, from anti-Muslim and skinhead organizations to the Proud Boys.
In 2019 and 2020, there were 11,208 incidents of extremism or anti-Semitism in the U.S., according to the Anti-Defamation League, another organization that tracks hate activity. It said extremists killed at least 17 people in the U.S. last year in 15 separate incidents, a total down from the previous two years but not indicative of a decrease in activity.
The new center will be led by Kathleen Blee, sociology professor and dean of Pitt’s Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and Lorrie Cranor, director and professor in security and privacy technologies in CMU’s CyLab.
While not providing a dollar figure, both women said the center has “significant” startup funding from the two universities. For now, it will operate without a physical space as it builds out its roster of scholars.
“We expect to be working with dozens of faculty across both universities who will be participating” said Ms. Cranor.
There has been “a clear escalation and acceleration of extremist hate especially in online spaces,” said Ms. Blee.
“They’ve made the distribution, mobilization and spread of online hate much harder to monitor and prosecute. It’s also more difficult to decipher the extent to which virtual communities of hate are simply reinforcing each other or being pushed by organized extremist organizations,” Ms. Blee said. “That’s created challenges for researchers and law enforcement who are trying to understand how these groups work and how to intervene.”
Across the U.S., individual centers focus on aspects of the problem, but the Carnegie Mellon and Pitt center will be distinct in offering a holistic approach to understand the messages, how they spread insidiously and escalate, officials said.
Carnegie Mellon has computer researchers looking at machine learning, analyzing networks and understanding how attitudes are promulgated, said Ms. Cranor. Others in disciplines such as English and linguistics can drill down on messages, while public policy experts can develop potential remedies.
On Pitt’s sprawling campus, expertise stretches from the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital to the university’s law school, which can guide those policy remedies to ensure they pass legal muster, said Ms. Blee.
Acts of violence can be years in the making, as attitudes are twisted and anger builds.
In Pittsburgh, that became clear on Oct. 27, 2018, as a gunman attacked the Tree of Life / Or L’Simcha synagogue in Squirrel Hill, leaving 11 worshippers from three congregations dead and six others wounded, including police officers.
The idea for this center came from a lengthy partnership between Carnegie Mellon’s President Emeritus Jared Cohon and Pitt’s Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg. Both served on a committee established by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh following the synagogue massacre and pondered ways to address such violence.
They worked with faculty at both universities who made the center a reality.
“Before the deadly attack at the Tree of Life synagogue, I rather naively assumed that love always would triumph over hate,” said Mr. Nordenberg. “As I came to learn more about the powerful tools that are being used to accelerate the spread of hate, however, it seemed clear that in today’s world, love needs a helping hand.”
Mr. Cohon sees the center as advancing that objective.
“I’m enthusiastic because, as with so many other partnerships throughout our history, CMU and Pitt complement each other very well,” he said.