Dr. Vivek Venkatesh
Dean, Faculty of Education | James McGill Professor | UNESCO Co-Chair in the Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism
- UNESCO Co-Chair in the Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism
- Research-Creation
- Pluralism
- Democratic Dialogue
- Arts Education
- Social Media
- Prevention of Violence
- Radicalisation
- Public Policy
- Social Pedagogy
- Community Resilience
Dr. Vivek Venkatesh is Dean of the Faculty of Education and a James McGill Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Since 2017, Vivek has held the UNESCO co-Chair in Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism. Vivek is a filmmaker, musician, curator and applied learning scientist whose research and research-creation programs focus on community resilience and pluralism through a resolutely public pedagogical approach. His feature films include documentaries about underground cultural scenes including Blekkmetal (2015), Where in the hell is the Lavender House? (2019) and Enslaved 25 (in post production). Vivek’s research-creation projects engage the multiple challenges of xenophobia at their roots through the development of four unique participative artistic projects: BANAL, Halka, Landscape of Hate and Landscape of Hope. All four projects expand knowledge mobilization activities far beyond traditional academic paths, and include film and music production, and curation of live performances by musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, and writers. These projects have reached more than 6,500 people at festivals in Canada, Norway, Mexico and Iceland. Vivek is co-editor of the book series titled Extremity in Society and Culture, being published by Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Press.
Ph.D. Educational Technology, Concordia University, Canada
M.A. Educational Technology, Concordia University, Canada
Post-Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
B.Sc. Computer Science and Information Systems, National University of Singapore
Select recent funding (2019 onwards)
- 2023; Prévention des violences à caractère sexuel dans les institutions post-secondaires au Québec, Ministère de l’enseignment supérieur du Québec, Canada
- 2022, No Outsides: Underground arts as a catalyst for pluralism in the era of polarization, Social Science and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant, Canada.
- 2021, Landscape of Hope: Magnifying narratives of resilience and ensuring wellbeing of marginalised Québécois youth, Social Science and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant, Canada
- 2019, Innovative social pedagogy to empower Indigenous communities & reduce gender, racial biases, Employment and Social Development Canada
- 2019, Centre d’études sur l’apprentissage et la performance (CEAP)/Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP), FRQSC Regroupement Stratégique, Canada
Nelson, B. J. & Venkatesh, V. (2024). Social pedagogy in the information age: Creating reflexive inclusivity to combat social media-fueled narcissism and solipsism. In Castillo, D. & Nelson, B. J. (special issue eds.) Anti-Disinformation Pedagogies, Hispanic Issues. University of Minnesota Digital Conservatory. Available at: https://conservancy.umn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/266249a9-f669-44e7-a101-5cc0ed85e574/content
Venkatesh, V. (In press). Discomfort as an axis of arts-based social pedagogy: Ethics of dissension in an era of polarization. In N. Varas-Diaz & V. Venkatesh (Eds.), The Ethics of Extremity: On Seeing, Hearing, and Feeling Each Other. Lexington Press.
Venkatesh, V., Ruprecht, L., Ferede, M., Narayana, M., & Labrie M-P (2023). Arts education: An investment in quality learning. UNESCO: Paris, France. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386034
Venkatesh, V. (2023). Seeking the banality in the extreme: Prescient identifiers of vapid narcissism in an era of post-truth. In N. Varas-Diaz, N. Scott, & B. Bardine (Eds). On Extremity: From Music to Images, Words, and Experiences (pp. 153-170). Lexington Press.
Venkatesh, V., Podoshen, J., Wallin, J., Rabah, J., & Glass, D. (2020). Promoting extreme violence: Visual and narrative analysis of select ultraviolent terror propaganda videos produced by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2015 and 2016. Terrorism and Political Violence, 32(8), 1753-1775. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2018.1516209
Venkatesh, V., Podoshen, J. S., Urbaniak, K., & Wallin, J. (2015). Eschewing community: Black metal. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 25, 66-81. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2197
Does not supervise students.
