Hate in Context

Week 1: Introduction and Defining Hate Crime

Violeta Haas

Department of Political Science

School of Social Sciences and Philosophy

Trinity College Dublin

Today

  1. Welcome
  2. Practicalities
  3. Assessment
  4. Course Content
  5. Questions

Welcome!

Hi! 👋

Violeta Haas
Assistant Professor in Political Science
New at Trinity College Dublin

Previously

  • Postdoc, IAST / Toulouse School of Economics
  • PhD, DYNAMICS (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2024)

Research

How institutions and elites shape perceptions of and behaviour toward marginalized groups (esp. immigration & LGBTQ+ rights). Also party competition, social norms, and protest.

Methods

Causal identification & computational social science. Experiments plus multimodal LLM applications.

How to reach me

  • General questions: Blackboard → General Questions discussion forum
    (things that may interest others too, such as deadlines, readings, logistics)
  • Individual questions: violeta.haas@tcd.ie. You can also approach me after class
    (personal circumstances, grades, anything sensitive)
  • Office hours: by appointment

Feedback, criticism, and suggestions always welcome

Note

Please check both Blackboard and your Trinity email regularly.

Your turn

Quick round. Share:

  • Name
  • Programme
  • How long your commute was
  • One thing you’re hoping to get from this module

Practicalities

When and where

Day Time Room
Monday 12–1 pm 1A, Goldsmith Hall
Wednesday 11–12 pm 1.16, Foster Place

Map locating Goldsmith Hall near Pearse Street

Map locating 3/4 Foster Place west of Trinity

Classroom norms

  • First-name basis?
  • If personal circumstances make requirements hard to meet, contact me
  • Arrive on time so we can use the full 50 minutes
  • Cameras on for Zoom office hours or guest sessions, please

Discussion norms

  • Uncertainty and imperfect takes are welcome. Say where you’re unsure
  • Ask questions early rather than sitting with confusion
  • Disagree with arguments and evidence, not with people
  • Build on others’ points and acknowledge them
  • One voice at a time. Leave space for quieter classmates

Discussing sensitive material

  • Use careful, scholarly language when discussing hate speech and targets of violence
  • If something lands badly, say so. We can pause and restart

Note

Content warning: This module examines the causes, consequences and responses to bias-motivated behavior. Materials may include descriptions of hate crimes, hate speech, and other disturbing or offensive content (including racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, anti-LGBTQ+, and similarly hateful language or imagery).

Assessment

Three components

Component Weight Core idea
Participation 30% Weekly Comments + attendance + seminar engagement
Position paper 10% Express and defend an opinion based on the readings
Research proposal 60% Propose an empirical study

Participation (30%)

  1. Weekly comments (150–250 words), due Sunday 11:59 pm
    • Focus on required readings
    • Critique, question, or reflect. Do not summarise.
    • No comment in Week 1, Reading Week, or your position-paper week
    • Two additional jokers
    • Week 11: Guest lecturer paper comments cannot be skipped
  2. Attendance: regular & prepared
  3. In-seminar contributions

Position paper (10%)

  • 800–1,200 words on one week’s readings
  • Defend a position: (dis)agree with key arguments, usefulness for current politics, or take sides when papers conflict
  • Due Sunday 11:59 pm before that week’s Monday seminar
  • Replaces the weekly comment that week

Sign up

Blackboard → Groups. Choose one week (max 3 students per week).

Opens: Mon 14 Sep, 1:00 pm
Closes: Fri 18 Sep, 11:59 pm.

Research proposal (60%)

A proposal for an empirical study (2,500–3,000 words):

  1. Clear research question
  2. Critical literature synthesis
  3. Theoretical argument
  4. Empirical approach (cases, methods, data)

Sign up

Book a 15-minute office hour (in person or Zoom) in the two weeks after Reading Week to discuss your topic.

You do not need to carry out the full study. Deadline: Fri 11 Dec, 11:59 pm.

Research proposal (60%)

A typical table of contents for the research paper might look like this:

  1. Introduction
  2. Theoretical motivation
  3. Design
  4. Data description
  5. Results
  6. Interpretation and conclusions

 

Written work

  • Stay within word limits (references / captions don’t count)
  • PDF, double-spaced, 12pt
  • Consistent citation style + bibliography
  • Research proposal: short end note on gender share of cited authors (e.g. for this syllabus: Cited authors: 37% women among all authors; 44% women among first authors. About 60% of readings include at least one woman. Reflection only, not graded.)

Note

Useful resources: Academic Style Guides

Late work and extensions

Late Submission of Assessments (Extensions) Policy

  • Late work without approved extension: 5 points per day (including weekends)
  • More than five days late without approval: may not be marked
  • Once work has been marked and returned to others: late submissions get 0
  • Request extensions for extenuating circumstances before the deadline

LENS (flexible deadlines)

If your LENS includes flexible assessment deadlines, you get a default one-week extension on eligible written work where practical.

  • Position paper and research proposal: applies automatically
  • Weekly comments: not practical (read before Monday). You get an extra joker instead. Contact me if you need another arrangement.

Useful Resources: Trinity Disability Service

Academic integrity and plagiarism

  • All submitted work must be your own, plagiarism of any kind will be sanctioned:
    • unacknowledged quotation or paraphrase
    • self-plagiarism (e.g. reusing work from another module)
    • ghostwriting
    • presenting AI text as your own unassisted work

Academic dishonesty can mean no credit for an assignment, a failing grade for the module, or further College sanctions

Note

Useful resources: Academic integrity & Ready Steady Write

Generative AI

  • Core ideas, arguments, text, and references must be yours
  • AI in class only if explicitly allowed
  • Direct paste of AI text: never
  • Comments: research/learning help OK
  • Paper / proposal: research + writing help OK if you revise and fact-check

Disclose AI use on the School submission form

Note

Useful resources: Library GenAI resources & College GenAI hub. As TCD students, you can log in at copilot.cloud.microsoft with your Trinity account and use Copilot there.

Course Content

Course roadmap

Causes Weeks 2–6 Demographic change
Economic conditions
(Social) media
Threatening events
Political elites
Consequences Week 8 Community impacts
Responses Weeks 9–10 Contact
Persuasion
Guest lecture Week 11 Inclusionary policy
Exclusionary policy
Your choice Week 12 Propose topic by
Fri 23 Oct, 11:59 pm

How to read for this seminar

When preparing a paper, try to identify:

  1. Research question
  2. What is explained (Y)
  3. Main explanatory factor (X)
  4. Central concepts
  5. Methods / research design
  1. Main findings
  2. Real-world implications
  3. Contribution to the literature
  4. Critique and limitations

Note

Useful resource: Macartan Humphreys, How to read

Week 1

Blackboard Week 1 module header

Additional readings (no required reading this week)

  • Dancygier, R. M., & Green, D. P. (2011). Hate crime. In J. F. Dovidio, M. Hewstone, P. Glick, & V. M. Esses (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination (pp. 294–311). Sage.
  • Schweppe, J. (2021). What is a hate crime? Cogent Social Sciences, 7(1), Article 1902643.
  • Chakraborti, N. (2014). Framing the boundaries of hate crime. In N. Hall, A. Corb, P. Giannasi, & J. Grieve (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook on hate crime (pp. 13–23). Routledge.
  • Vergani, M., Perry, B., Freilich, J., Chermak, S., Scrivens, R., Link, R., Kleinsman, D., Betts, J., & Iqbal, M. (2024). Mapping the scientific knowledge and approaches to defining and measuring hate crime, hate speech, and hate incidents: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 20(2), Article e1397.

Week 2

Blackboard Week 2 module header

Required

  • Cikara, M., Fouka, V., & Tabellini, M. (2022). Hate crime towards minoritized groups increases as they increase in size-based rank. Nature Human Behaviour, 6(11), 1537–1544.
  • Hangartner, D., Dinas, E., Marbach, M., Matakos, K., & Xefteris, D. (2019). Does exposure to the refugee crisis make natives more hostile? American Political Science Review, 113(2), 442–455.
  • Dancygier, R., Egami, N., Jamal, A., & Rischke, R. (2022). Hate crimes and gender imbalances: Fears over mate competition and violence against refugees. American Journal of Political Science, 66(2), 501–515.

Week 3

Blackboard Week 3 module header

Required

  • Riaz, S. (2023). Does inequality foster xenophobia? Evidence from the German refugee crisis. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(2), 359–378.
  • Bestenbostel, A., & Peralta, A. (2026). WARNings: The impact of negative economic news on racial animus. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 243, Article 107399.

Week 4

Blackboard Week 4 module header

Required

  • Siegel, A. A. (2020). Online hate speech. In N. Persily & J. A. Tucker (Eds.), Social media and democracy: The state of the field, prospects for reform (pp. 56–88). Cambridge University Press.
  • Müller, K., & Schwarz, C. (2023). From hashtag to hate crime: Twitter and antiminority sentiment. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 15(3), 270–312.

Week 5

Blackboard Week 5 module header

Required

  • Dipoppa, G., Grossman, G., & Zonszein, S. (2023). Locked down, lashing out: COVID-19 effects on Asian hate crimes in Italy. The Journal of Politics, 85(2), 389–404.
  • Riaz, S., Bischof, D., & Wagner, M. (2024). Out-group threat and xenophobic hate crimes: Evidence of local intergroup conflict dynamics between immigrants and natives. The Journal of Politics, 86(4), 1146–1161.
  • Álvarez-Benjumea, A., & Winter, F. (2020). The breakdown of antiracist norms: A natural experiment on hate speech after terrorist attacks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(37), 22800–22804.

Week 6

Blackboard Week 6 module header

Required

  • Romarri, A. (2020). Do far-right mayors increase the probability of hate crime? Evidence from Italy. Working paper.
  • Dancygier, R. (2023). Hate crime supporters are found across age, gender, and income groups and are susceptible to violent political appeals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(7), Article e2212757120.
  • Zonszein, S., & Grossman, G. (2025). Voted in, standing out: Public response to immigrants’ political accession. American Journal of Political Science, 69(2), 718–733.

Week 7

Blackboard Week 7 module header

No class. Use the week for catching up on readings and developing research-proposal ideas.

Week 8

Blackboard Week 8 module header

Required

  • Mitts, T. (2019). From isolation to radicalization: Anti-Muslim hostility and support for ISIS in the West. American Political Science Review, 113(1), 173–194.
  • Branton, R., & Kropf, M. (2026). Mail voting as a tool to avoid voter intimidation and hate crimes. American Politics Research, 54(4), 400–410.
  • Roman, M. F., & Thompson, J. (2024). Fickle prosociality: How violence against LGBTQ+ people motivates prosocial mass attitudes toward LGBTQ+ group members. American Political Science Review, 119(4), 1665–1683.

Week 9

Blackboard Week 9 module header

Required

  • Scope Conditions. (n.d.). The promise and limits of intergroup contact, with Salma Mousa [Audio podcast episode]. Scope Conditions Podcast. scopeconditionspodcast.com.
  • Alrababa’h, A., Marble, W., Mousa, S., & Siegel, A. A. (2021). Can exposure to celebrities reduce prejudice? The effect of Mohamed Salah on Islamophobic behaviors and attitudes. American Political Science Review, 115(4), 1111–1128.
  • Mousa, S. (2020). Building social cohesion between Christians and Muslims through soccer in post-ISIS Iraq. Science, 369(6505), 866–870.
  • Scacco, A., & Warren, S. S. (2018). Can social contact reduce prejudice and discrimination? Evidence from a field experiment in Nigeria. American Political Science Review, 112(3), 654–677.

Week 10

Blackboard Week 10 module header

Required

  • Broockman, D., & Kalla, J. (2016). Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing. Science, 352(6282), 220–224.
  • Adida, C. L., Lo, A., & Platas, M. R. (2018). Perspective taking can promote short-term inclusionary behavior toward Syrian refugees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(38), 9521–9526.
  • Hangartner, D., Gennaro, G., Alasiri, S., Bahrich, N., Bornhoft, A., Boucher, J., et al. (2021). Empathy-based counterspeech can reduce racist hate speech in a social media field experiment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(50), Article e2116310118.
  • Kalla, J. L., & Broockman, D. E. (2020). Reducing exclusionary attitudes through interpersonal conversation: Evidence from three field experiments. American Political Science Review, 114(2), 410–425.
  • Kalla, J. L., & Broockman, D. E. (2023). Which narrative strategies durably reduce prejudice? Evidence from field and survey experiments supporting the efficacy of perspective-getting. American Journal of Political Science, 67(1), 185–204.

Week 11

Blackboard Week 11 module header

Required

  • Lehmann, M. C., & Masterson, D. T. (2020). Does aid reduce anti-refugee violence? Evidence from Syrian refugees in Lebanon. American Political Science Review, 114(4), 1335–1342.
  • Levy, B. L., & Levy, D. L. (2017). When love meets hate: The relationship between state policies on gay and lesbian rights and hate crime incidence. Social Science Research, 61, 142–159.
  • Allinger, T. L. (n.d.). Do exclusionary policies increase hate crimes? Evidence from the nomad camps in Italy. Working paper.

Week 12

Blackboard Week 12 module header

Post topic ideas to the Blackboard Discussion forum by Fri 23 Oct, 11:59 pm.

Important dates

Position-paper sign-up closes Fri 18 Sep, 11:59 pm
Position paper due one Sunday 11:59 pm
Weekly comments due each Sunday, 11:59 pm
Week 12 topic ideas due Fri 23 Oct, 11:59 pm
Office-hour sign-up (proposal topic) Fri 30 Oct, 11:59 pm
Reading Week (no class) 26 Oct – 1 Nov
Guest lecture (Allinger) Wed 25 Nov
Research proposal due Fri 11 Dec, 11:59 pm

Questions?

Goodbye!

See you on Wednesday.