The Extremism Research & Intervention Studio (ERIS) is home to PERIL’s work in the world of online communication. The ERIS team is responsible for maintaining PERIL’s deep knowledge of online cultures, mapping narratives and rhetoric of extremist and conspiracy theory spaces, and informing PERIL’s primary research and monitoring strategies. As PERIL’s design studio, ERIS houses PERIL’s groundbreaking work in video-based prebunking (attitudinal inoculation) and ongoing work disseminating these tools and techniques to local communities. ERIS is home to ongoing projects with government, private, and nonprofit partners including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Jigsaw, the Department of Homeland Security, and more.
VEER
Violent Extremism Education and Resilience is a train-the-trainers program, funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s 2023 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant cycle. VEER connects organizations working in the space of community resilience with the tools and training necessary to stand up community-led, community-servicing prevention education. VEER is based around a web portal, launching November 2023, which offers self-guided training modules on the topics of leading community dialogue, developing attitudinal inoculation messages, and using video and digital media to reach audiences locally and beyond.
DUCC
DUCC (Developing and Using Critical Comprehension) is an initiative that combines social-emotional learning and digital literacy to foster critical and independent thinking in students grades K-5. An ongoing initiative, DUCC is creating a comprehensive curriculum, including lesson plans, animated videos, and activities for educators across the nation.
Anti-Vax Videos
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, ERIS worked with partners in government, academia, and healthcare, to understand and interrupt the adoption of anti-vaccine and COVID-denialist misinformation and conspiracy theories. This work included narrative and rhetoric mapping in the English and French-speaking worlds, as well as attitudinal inoculation videos, which “prebunked” common anti-vaccine tropes.