Regan Johnston

Junior Affiliate (PhD)

Regan Johnston is currently a PhD student at McMaster University. Regan’s research focus is on the spread of extremist content and hate speech on social media platforms. Her interest lies in using quantitative measures with social media discourse to study its relationship to radicalized individuals. Her previous graduate research focused on using discourse analysis on the political responses to the 2014 Parliament Hill shooting and the 2014 ramming attack in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

Regan holds a Master of Science degree in International Relations from the University of Glasgow and completed her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at McGill University. She also completed a certificate in Data Analytics, Big Data, and Predictive Analytics from Ryerson University.

Regan Johnson

Research Area(s):

Regan Johnston is currently a PhD student in Political Science at McMaster University. Her thesis will focus on the issue of radicalization and hate speech and will utilize using big data from social media. She is eager to connect with other researchers for data tips and funding strategies.

Johnston completed her master’s thesis at University of Glasgow on Radicalization in Canada where she reviewed the 2014 Parliament Hill shooting and the 2014 ramming attack in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and focused her research on the political discourse in the aftermath of the attacks.

Regan also completed a certificate in Data Analytics, Big Data, and Predictive Analytics from Ryerson University in order to gain the quantitative skills in preparation of her PhD research.

Outside of academia, Johnston volunteers for Midaynta Community Services, a Toronto based non-profit that holds an annual conference on youth radicalization and community resilience, where she serves on the planning committee for the upcoming conference on youth resiliency. This role has involved organizing the speaker panels, formulating the criteria for conference proposal submissions, as well as recruiting conference attendees. Prior to this involvement, she provided research and writing support for Midaynta’s Youth Resiliency, Hate, Racism, and Radicalization conference report. Both this experience as well as her academic background, have allowed her to structure her career goals of producing research that benefits community organizations.

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