Alice Chan is a doctoral student in Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University.
Her doctoral study explores the potential connection between religious literacy and religious bullying – a root cause to religious extremism (Keddie, 1998; Moghaddam, 2005). By reviewing the only two mandatory religious literacy programs in North American public high schools, Québec’s Ethics and Religious Culture program and Modesto, California’s World Geography & Religions course, she hopes to better understand the phenomenon of religious bullying and explore the way religious literacy may address it. This will enable her to better understand how to address religious extremism as well.
Through her research assistantship with Dr. Ratna Ghosh on the SSHRC funded project “Countering religious extremism through education in multicultural Canada”, she is able to better understand the progression from religious bullying to religious extremism. Upon completion of her doctoral study and research assistantship, she aims to share her findings about religious bullying and its development into religious extremism with teachers and students. In doing so, she hopes to inform and equip the future generation on ways to prevent the development of religious extremism and terrorism altogether.
