Our Team
The CIFRS team is made up of an interdisciplinary group of early-career scholars and professionals located across Canada and the United States.
Mariel Cooksey (she/her)
Executive Director
Mariel’s research background focuses on Christianity and far-right extremism in the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on anti-Semitic and “Radical traditionalist” Catholic groups. She is currently researching the overlap between Gen Z internet culture, climate collapse and accelerationism.
Garnet Barrett (he/him)
Development Assistant
Garnet’s research is mainly focused on extremism on digital platforms and extremist threats to Canadian critical infrastructure. He is currently researching far-right extremism on gaming adjacent platforms and community driven approaches for building trust and safety online.
Asher Goldstein (he/him)
Senior Fellow
Asher’s research focuses on the networks of disinformation connecting extractive industries to settler supremacist movements in Canada, and their use of the vehicle of the think tank to provide cover for diverse forms of Canadian extractivism. He is currently researching this made-in-Canada ‘indifference industry’, and its entanglement in the erasure of ongoing displacement at home and abroad.
Luc Cousineau (he/they)
Co-Director of Research
Luc’s research is divided between critiques of masculinity, men’s rights, leisure online and the study of employee surveillance software. His research centers gender and power in work and leisure, with a particular focus on how masculinities are understood and interact with lives online.
Kathleen Mah (she/her)
Junior Fellow
Kathleen’s research draws attention to and fosters conversations around structural violence. Her focus is on critical public health and anti-masking groups. Her most recent project critically analyzed the Freedom Fighters.
Kelly Rao (she/her)
Junior Fellow
Kelly’s research interest is at the intersection between law and politics, specifically how Supreme Court of Canada decisions affect social policies and civil livelihood. She is interested in how reproductive rights cases affect abortion and healthcare legislation in Canada.
Amy Mack (she/her)
Co-Director of Research
Amy’s research focuses on the resurgence of ethno-nationalist and white supremacist movements in Canada, and their use of social media to build communities and circulate their ideologies. She is currently researching their narratives of white male victimhood, belonging, and entitlement.
Ryan Hopkins (he/him)
Senior Fellow
Ryan’s research engages with social media platforms to analyze how far-right rhetoric spreads via online spaces. He has specific interest on discourses surrounding the themes of masculinity, [anti]immigration, white genocide, and mythology.
K. A. Fuller (he/him)
Head of Communications
Fuller’s research interests include masculinities, sexuality, social movements, post-colonialism, critical theory, and the online environment. He focuses on how gender and sexuality play a part in politics, especially within social (virtual) spaces, as people form a collective identity by accepting Western centrism.
Nur Helvali (she/her)
Junior Fellow
Nur’s research is focused on preventing violent extremism and countering terrorism mainly in the Middle East. She has previously worked on Jihadist terror groups and forced migration from the region. Currently, she is working on the intersection of far-right extremism and Islamic terrorism.
