Welcome to Notes on the Study of Hate

Welcome to Notes on the Study of Hate, a blog of The Initiative to Study Hate at UCLA.

The Initiative to Study Hate (ISH) began as a three-year pilot program bringing together scholars and student researchers from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds in order to study, understand, and ultimately mitigate group-based hatred and political violence. Research teams pursue unique independent projects, while also convening regularly to discuss issues, present findings, and hear from other experts.

Although we are deeply committed to expanding the field of hate studies through advanced scholarship, we also know that social change is most effective and enduring when it starts from the ground up. We thus believe it is of the utmost importance that we share our work with the UCLA community and the wider public. Notes on the Study of Hate is one of many tools we hope will help translate the theoretical and scientific knowledge we generate in our research into usable wisdom for the public square. 

To this end, Notes on the Study of Hate will showcase the work our researchers are doing in accessible terms. In entries to come, each of our ISH teams will publish a post that explains the shape and scope of their project and its relationship to our broader goals. In the future, we also plan to offer interviews and features spotlighting archives, materials, and experiences related to hate at UCLA and across the Los Angeles area. We have also created and are working to expand our online research hub, which will provide resources for UCLA students who are interested in conducting their own research into group-based hatred or who simply want to know more about the issues at hand.

People hold signs during a rally in response to the killing of Christina Yuna Lee in the Chinatown section of New York, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. Lee was stabbed to death inside her lower Manhattan apartment by a man who followed her from the street into her building, authorities said. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

It can often seem that hate is simply part of the ecosystem, an omnipresent predator that invariably adapts to overcome whatever barriers against it we might erect. Yet while it is true that hate is not a straightforward problem that can be “solved,” history offers numerous examples of communities working together to break cycles of violence. In these struggles towards a more just and open world, information has emerged time and again as one of our most valuable resources, but only when it is effectively shared. At ISH, we have committed ourselves not only to the production of scholarship but also to its translation and transmission.

Notes on the Study of Hate is one of the ways we are working to achieve this goal. Hate is as complex as it is common, as familiar as it is strange, so we hope that by sharing our knowledge and learning from one another, we can confront one of the most pressing problems facing our campus, our community, our country, and our world.