PARTICIPATE Final Conference Showcases Research, Policy, and Practice in Brussels
PARTICIPATE Doctoral Candidates
On 11–12 June, ABC Doctoral Candidates Deniz Celikoglu, Meghmala Mukherjee, and Isabel Machado da Silva attended and presented their research findings at the PARTICIPATE Final Conference in Brussels. They were accompanied by their respective supervisors: Prof. Debbie Ging (School of Communications), Prof. James O’Higgins Norman, Dr. Ashling Bourke, and Prof. Audrey Bryan (School of Human Development).
PARTICIPATE Project DCU Anti-Bullying Centre Supervisors and Doctoral Candidates
The PARTICIPATE project is funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, which created 10 doctoral projects across different European universities, aimed at empowering practitioners, parents/guardians, schools, and policymakers to better understand and respond to (online) bullying. The project was coordinated by DCU Anti- Bullying Centre with Prof. Debbie Ging, Prof. James O’Higgins Norman and Prof. Audrey Bryan as the Principal Investigators.
The first day of the event focused on bridging research with practice and policy. Doctoral Candidates Deniz, Meghmala and Giorgia Scuderi (Aarhus University) presented their Digital Literacy Toolkit for Parents. Isabel Machado Da Silva also presented a second toolkit aiming to enhance parent-school collaborations against (cyber)bullying.
Deniz Celikoglu, Giorgia Scuderi and Meghmala Mukherjee presenting their Digital Literacy Toolkit for Parents.
The day ended with a policy session where Doctoral Candidate Kainaat Maqbool led a dialogue on the limitations of current policy language in revealing the systemic injustices influencing (cyber)bullying, thus influencing and restricting our understanding of responsibility allocation.
Prof. Audrey Bryan’s Keynote
The second day started with a thought-provoking keynote by Prof. Audrey Bryan entitled‘Responsibility or Responsibilisation? A Social Cartography of Bullying in Algorithmic Times’. Prof. Bryan questioned the over-responsibilisation of parents as the first-line actors for the prevention of (cyber)bullying among young people. She highlighted the need to go beyond individualistic blaming frameworks to (re)consider the responsibility of other stakeholders such as Big Tech companies.
The conference also hosted a presentation by Dr. Frederikke Skanning Knage (Aarhus University Bullying), entitled ‘Marginalisation and Conflict Between Children’ which exposed the forms of bullying that go under the radar as they are entangled in practices that make it appear legitimate, harmless, or even necessary.
Throughout the day, our Doctoral Candidates participated in several roundtable panels, each with a different focus, where they engaged in critical conversations and revealed insights from their individual doctoral projects.
Panel on ‘Understanding Online Bullying Involvement and its Consequences on Young People’ moderated by Prof. James O'Higgins Norman.
Panel on ‘Whole-Community Approaches to Prevent and Address (Online) Bullying’
Panel on ‘Social Interactions in the Age of Algorithms’ moderated by Prof. Debbie Ging
The conference was not only attended by academics but also by European Commissioners, Policy Officers, NGOs and Civil Society representatives based across the European Union. This provided a unique opportunity for the Doctoral Candidates to disseminate their research findings.
Prof. Debbie Ging and Prof. James O’Higgins Norman concluded the two-day conference by praising the high-quality discussions that expanded and advanced the field of bullying research. They also commended the work undertaken by the Doctoral Candidates, who have developed significant research expertise over the past three years and are emerging as a new generation of leaders in the fields of bullying, cyberbullying, and online-facilitated violence.