SIGNAL (Strategies for Intersectional Gender Justice, Networked, Action, and Liberation) is a cross-disciplinary research and action network dedicated to addressing the growing threat of tech-facilitated gendered violence, radicalization, social polarization, and systemic inequity online. Current technology infrastructures, media ecosystems, and social behaviours are enabling online hate, social division, and political polarization, contributing significantly to online and offline violence, ongoing marginalization, and increased attacks against targeted communities (Statistics Canada 2024). SIGNAL's mandate is to build socially just and technologically resilient futures through feminist, queer, anti-racist, and equity-driven approaches. The initiative brings together researchers and practitioners across disciplines, sectors, and countries to foster collaboration, ethical innovation, and inclusive digital transformation.
SIGNAL combines qualitative, quantitative, and computational methods with digital humanities and research-creation approaches to generate rigorous, policy-relevant research. It applies advanced analytic techniques, such as natural language processing, network analysis, and data visualization, within interpretive, feminist, and intersectional frameworks. The network prioritizes collaborating with equity-deserving communities, centring those most affected by online hate. We leverage our combined interdisciplinary expertise, utilizing institutional infrastructures and extensive national and international connections to deliver impactful outputs that bridge academic research, grassroots advocacy, and policy action, contributing to a more equitable and democratic information environment in Canada and beyond.
SIGNAL is anchored, as our full name suggests, by our commitment to intersectional gender justice, networked action, and liberation. To advance network goals in these areas, we have three corresponding research strands. These include 1) mapping online gendered hate, radicalization, and social polarization, 2) developing feminist-oriented technologies, and 3) archiving meaningful counter practices to gendered hate across temporal and geographical locations. These are supported by 4) a grounding strand dedicated to building networks, policy recommendations, and public-facing resources to build resilient and coalitional communities of care and action. This work is guided by standing committees for our organizational priority areas: research data management and archival practice, knowledge mobilization, and student mentorship and training.
SIGNAL has four co-directors: Shana MacDonald (UWaterloo), Nick Ruest (York University), Jada Watson (UOttawa), and Brianna Wiens (UWaterloo). It presently includes members from across North America and Europe at all career stages. To date, we have developed an open-access database on male supremacist podcast transcripts, educational models on identifying misogyny and radicalization within the classroom and how to mitigate it, and launched a Canadian survey addressing experiences of misogynist backlash among feminist scholars nationally.
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