“In times of viral fake news and the online spread of conspiracy theories, we need to ascribe science a new role to prevent a flashback from logos to mythos. Vienna is good at science, Vienna likes to dance – the Vienna Ball of Sciences is combining these two strengths. It shows how much fun it can be to create knowledge instead of ignorance, and to understand complex connections instead of being satisfied with simplified depictions of reality.”

The Austrian Julia Ebner researches extremism and terrorism and is a Research Fellow at the  Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London. In her book “The Rage” she looks at goals, strategies and motivations of extremists. For her research she acquired covert identities and developed conversations with IS- sympathisers and ultranationalists in online chatrooms.

Foto (c) Daniel Novotny