W. Y. Alice Chan

I recently defended my PhD in the Faculty of Education at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. I have a background in Sociology and Economics from Queen’s University and a Masters of Teaching from OISE at the University of Toronto, Canada. Before this, I worked in international corporations and non-profit organizations, and was a middle school teacher in the Greater Toronto Area. These experiences have all informed my current work with students, teachers, and the larger community.

My PhD research focused on the connection between religious bullying (which includes bullying towards religious and non-religious individuals) and religious literacy in North American public schools. I completed this study specifically in the contexts of Modesto, California, and Montreal, Quebec.

My additional research focused on religion, religious literacy, and violent extremism. These studies were titled “Educational trajectories of radicalized females in Montreal” and “Countering violent extremism through education in multicultural Canada.”

Altogether, my work on religious identities, religious bullying, religious literacy, and violent extremism has been published in academic and non-academic sources, and reports for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, UNESCO-MGIEP, and the Hindu American Foundation. I have also presented it at international conferences, such as the World Anti-Bullying Forum, the Society for Terrorism Research, and the Comparative and International Education Society.

My work is increasingly interdisciplinary and considers aspects of education, political science, sociology, psychology, terrorism studies, and religious studies. It includes research, program evaluation, and teaching in order to bridge conversations among academics and local community members. My work with local community members is most evident through my role at the Centre for Civic Religious Literacy.

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