+ Extended Biography

Adrian Cherney is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland. He is also an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow.

His current work focuses on the evaluation of programs aimed at countering violent extremism and has undertaken research on the supervision of terrorist offenders who have been released into the community on parole.

Adrian’s current ARC Future Fellowship is exploring community-based efforts to prevent terrorism. Other projects include identifying available data sources and measures for CVE evaluation. His research has also focused on community cooperation in counter-terrorism and police engagement of Muslim communities in counter-terrorism efforts.

He has previously secured relevant grants from the Australian Research Council, the US Air Force, the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Queensland Department of Communities, NSW Corrective Services and the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department.

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Andrew Zammit is a PhD Candidate at Monash University’s School of Social Sciences, studying transnational support for armed movements. He has been employed on research projects for Monash University’s Global Terrorism Research Centre (GTReC) and Victoria University’s Centre for Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing (CCDW). He also works for the website Analysis & Policy Observatory (APO) at Swinburne University and co-hosts the podcast Sub Rosa.

Andrew’s research has mainly focused on violent extremism in Australia. His other areas of research interest include human rights, national security laws and Indonesian politics. He has published in media outlets such as The Age, The Conversation, The Strategist and The Drum, specialist outlets such as the Jamestown Terrorism Monitor and West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel, and academic journals such as Terrorism and Political Violence and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

Andrew is currently co-authoring International Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in the Australian Context with Debra Smith (Forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Andrew’s publications can be found here.

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Dr. Anna Halafoff is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology ,and a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, at Deakin University. She is also a Research Associate of the UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations – Asia Pacific at Monash University and of Canada’s Religion and Diversity Project. Prior to joining Deakin, Anna was a Senior Researcher at the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University, from 2006-2012, and taught several units in the Master of Terrorism Studies. In 2011, Anna was named a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations’ Global Expert in the fields of religion and terrorism. Anna’s current research interests include: religious diversity; interreligious relations; countering violent extremism; and education about religions and worldviews. Her recent books include The Multifaith Movement: Global Risks and Cosmopolitan Solutions (Springer 2013) and Education about Religions and Worldviews: Promoting Intercultural and Interreligious Understanding in Secular Societies (Routledge, 2016 edited with Arweck and Boisvert).

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Chad Whelan is an Associate Professor in Criminology in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University and a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation. He conducts research on organised crime, terrorism, cyber-crime and security, and multi-agency responses to such problems across organisational boundaries and professional disciplines. Much of his research adopts a network perspective to understanding crime and terrorism, and their responses. He is author of Networks and National Security: Dynamics, Effectiveness and Organisation (Routledge, 2012), Securing Mega-Events: Networks, Strategies, Tensions (Palgrave, 2018 with Dr Adam Molnar), and is currently contracted to publish Organised Crime and Law Enforcement: A Network Perspective (Routledge 2019, with A/Prof. David Bright). His criminological research has been funded by nationally competitive grants and cooperative research centres. Recent publications have appeared in journals, including the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, Global Crime, Police Practice and Research, Policing, Policing and Society, and Security Journal.

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Dr Debra Smith is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities (ISILC), Victoria University. Debra has an industry funded position working with Defence Science Technology Group. She received her PhD from Monash University for her exploration of the role of emotion within decisions to engage in violent political extremism.

Debra’s research focuses on questions of violent political extremism, social conflict and social change. She has a particular interest in the role of emotion within violent extremism beliefs and action. Debra’s research has examined emotional investment in violent and non-violent extremist groups, the emotional resonance of violent and non-violent extremist messaging, and how emotions contribute to the development of moral positions that can justify violent acts.

Debra has worked on projects with various law enforcement and government partners to understand processes of radicalisation that lead to violent political extremism. Her current projects at Victoria University include,

• Understanding the relationship between online and offline social influence in radicalisation leading to violent extremism (with DST Group, Prof Michele Grossman and Prof Ramon Spaaij)
• Mapping networks and narratives of emerging far-right social movements in Victoria (with Dr Mario Peucker, Moonshot CVE and All Together Now)
• From Passive Observer to Active Participant: Identifying Transitions to Violent Extremism Activity (With Prof. Ramon Spaaij, Victoria Police and Australian Multicultural Foundation)
  
  Debra is currently co-authoring International Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in the Australian Context with Andrew Zammit (Forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

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Greg is Research Professor in Global Islamic Politics in the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University where, since August 2015, he has led research on Islam and civil society, democratisation, and countering violent extremism. From 2007 to 2015 he was the Herb Feith Professor at Monash University where he led research on radicalisation in the Global Terrorism Research Centre (GTReC). He taught at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu from 2006 to 2007, and at Deakin University from 1992 to 2006. He is a Senior Fellow with the UAE-based Hedayah Center in Abu Dhabi working on CVE. Greg is one of Australia’s leading scholars of both modern Indonesia and of terrorism and countering violent extremism and has near-native fluency in Indonesian/Malay.

Together with the Director of GTReC, A/Prof Peter Lentini, he led a large ARC Linkage research project examining violent extremist radicalization and counter radicalization. He has just commenced work on a new ARC Discovery Grant funded project (under the leadership of Prof Doug Ezzy, UTas) ARC entitled: Religious diversity in Australia: Maintaining social cohesion and preventing violence. Since 1997 he has held a further five ARC research grants studying Islam and politics in Indonesia.

Over the past 30 years he has undertaken extensive research on Indonesia politics and society, especially of the role of Islam as both a constructive and a disruptive force. He has been active in the inter-faith dialogue initiatives and has a deep commitment to building understanding of Islam and Muslim society. The central axis of his research interests is the way in which religious thought, individual believers and religious communities respond to modernity and to the modern nation state. He also has a strong general interest in international relations and comparative international politics. Since 2004 he has made a comparative study of progressive Islamic thought in Turkey and Indonesia with particular reference to Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah in Indonesia and the transnational Hizmet movement inspired by Turkey’s Fethullah Gulen.

Greg has a general interest in security studies and human security and a particular interest in countering violent extremism. He continues to research the offshoots of Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaeda, ISIS and related radical Islamist movements in Southeast Asia and has been involved in teaching counter-terrorism courses at the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies (APCSS) in Honolulu and with other institutions and agencies, including for the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police, the Counter Terrorism branch in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Countering Violent Extremism Centre in the Attorney General’s Department (now in the Department of Home Affairs). He is often invited by government agencies in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia to teach workshops on violent extremism and terrorism. Since 2016 Greg has been leading the Home Affairs’ Southeast Asian Network of Civil Society Organisations working together against extremism.

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Levi West is the Director of Terrorism Studies at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University (CSU); a Research Fellow at the Institute for Regional Security, Director of Leviathan Analysis Pty Ltd; and a PhD candidate in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University (ANU).

Levi’s research interests focus on the intersection of terrorism, communication, and technology and he has been published in academic journals and scholarly book chapters, as well as being published in national media outlets and on prominent national security blogs.

Levi manages and contributes substantially to the design and delivery of CSU’s Masters of Terrorism and Security Studies program in Canberra and has lectured extensively to law enforcement, intelligence, and military audiences both domestically and internationally, including New York University, the Naval War College in the United States, the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation in Indonesia, the National Security College at ANU, and at the Australian Command and Staff College at the Australian Defence College. Additionally, Levi contributes to a range of internal training programs for the law enforcement and national security community, both in Australia, and internationally.

Levi is a sought after speaker on terrorism and other national security issues, and a frequent media contributor.

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Lise is CI on an ARC grant developing base-line data in relation to the engagement with and attitudes to online violent extremist content among youth populations in Australia. Her current work program includes the design of regional resilience and social cohesion programs and she is currently involved in the evaluation of a CVE project focused on the Australian Far-Right. Lise has worked with a diverse range of government, private sector and academic institutions and in 2014; she designed and delivered a solution-focused multidisciplinary symposium to examine core issues in the CVE policy/practioner environment. Lise has an ongoing interest in the construction and influence of identities in relation to violent extremism and social resilience.

Lise studied anthropology and international relations at University College London and the Brussels School of International Studies, Kent University and wrote on political memory, genocide and the securitization of identity. Lise worked for the UK Ministry of Defence and Home Office examining socio-cultural dimensions of defence and security. In 2010 she joined Macquarie University where she is the course convener for PICT837: Terrorism Dynamics, PICT818: Counter Terrorism, and PICT844: The Modern Intelligence Practioner.

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He has two PhDs in the social sciences, one in the political psychology of terrorism (Monash University, 2016) and one in political sociology (Catholic University of Milan, 2011). He is a full-time postdoctoral researcher at Deakin University where he conducts quantitative and qualitative research on terrorism and CVE in Australia and Southeast Asia, including the impact evaluation of CVE programs. In 2016 and 2017 he attracted research grants for a total of $833,134. Dr Vergani also published a monograph and over 30 research articles, of which 13 in peer-reviewed journals with impact factor. He is Editor in Chief of a new international online journal in Italian and English language focused on terrorism (http://www.sicurezzaterrorismosocieta.it/?lang=en), and is an Associate Researcher at IMAN Research (Kuala Lumpur) and ITSTIME Research (Milan).

Dr Vergani uses innovative and rigorous quantitative research methods to study political violence, its causes, its impact on society and the impact of the initiatives that aim to prevent it. These include the use of comparison and control groups in cross-sectional and experimental research, the use of text-analysis computerized techniques and more generally statistical analyses and a variety of qualitative techniques to compliment quantitative approaches. In his doctoral research, those rigorous approaches allowed me to show that, contrary to the predictions of a widely cited theory in social psychology (Terror Management Theory), mortality salience does not increase the support for political violence among non-extremist samples. The findings of this research are now published in one of the most prestigious journals in the field of Political Science (Political Psychology), and in his monograph (published in 2018). He has found that individuals with positive attitudes towards violence tend to have narrower and less sophisticated political views, are less concerned with their professional career, and more disillusioned with life than individuals who reject violence. Moreover, he has contributed to the literature that shows that the perceived threat of terrorism can lead to an increase in anti-establishment attitudes, to the polarisation of political attitudes and to the disruption of trust between religious and ethnic communities in multicultural democracies, and ultimately to conflict intensification.

+ Extended Biography

Professor Michele Grossman is Research Chair in Diversity and Community Resilience and Convenor of the AVERT Research Network at ADI, Deakin University. Michele’s research focuses on community perspectives on and engagement with the drivers of and responses to violent extremism.

She has led or collaborated on a range of influential research studies in this area with national and international impact and scope, including her work on mapping service provision capabilities for CVE intervention and support services (Barolsky, Grossman, Cain & Dellal, 2018); community reporting thresholds for sharing information with authorities about violent extremist involvement (Grossman, 2015; Thomas, Grossman, Miah & Christmann, 2017); asset-based approaches to measuring youth resilience to violent extremism (Grossman, Ungar, Brisson, Gerrand, Hadfield & Jefferies, 2017), the role of women in both supporting and opposing violent extremism (Grossman, Carland, Tahiri & Zammit, 2017), understanding the experience of families with young people who have participated in violent extremist conflict (Gerrand & Grossman, 2017); a systematic literature and selected program review of social cohesion, community resilience and violent extremism (Grossman, Peucker, Smith & Dellal, 2016); harnessing resilience capital in culturally diverse communities to counter violent extremism (Grossman, Tahiri & Stephenson, 2014), and Australian community perspectives on radicalisation and extremism (Tahiri & Grossman, 2013).

Her research publications have appeared in journals including Terrorism & Political Violence, Critical Studies on Terrorism, Behavioural Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Journal of Policing and Counter-Terrorism, amongst others. She is currently a chief investigator on a European Commission Horizon 2020 research grant (2018-2021) on secularism, the governance of religion and radicalisation in European, Middle East/North African and Asia-Pacific contexts led by the European University Institute in Italy, and holds a Visiting Professorship (2018-2022) with the School of Education and Professional Development and the Secure Societies institute at University of Huddersfield in the UK. Many of Professor Grossman’s articles, book chapters and publicly available research reports can be found online or are available by request: Michele.grossman@deakin.edu.au

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Reem Sweid is a doctoral student at Deakin University and a Research Assistant for the UNESCO Chair, Cultural Diversity and Social Justice at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation. She received her Master’s in Development Management from the London School of Economics (2007) and her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Economics from Brown University in the United States (2005). Reem’s PhD research encompasses a post-structural analysis of countering violent extremism (CVE) discourse in the United Kingdom and Australia. She has most recently worked on a research project examining multiculturalism policy and the role of intercultural dialogue and a scoping study for CVE support services. Prior to commencing her PhD at Deakin, Reem worked at the Australian Institute of Family Studies where she contributed to research projects on range of subjects include adoption, settlement services and welfare delivery.

Reem is also the founder and president of Muslim Collective where she has secured three government grants to engage in a range of projects include a research project on service needs for LGBTIQ+ Muslims. She managed a photography campaign and exhibition: ‘Ways to be Muslim’ that celebrates the diversity within the Muslim community and address increasingly negative stereotypes of Muslims. Reem’s research interests include: the impacts of violent extremism (and countering violent extremism) narrative on Muslims and progressive Islamic thought on social justice and human rights. Reem is a fellow of the progressive Islamic think tank the Critical Muslim Institute based in the United Kingdom.

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He has an active research interest in the politics of Central Asia, Islam, Muslims in Australia and the Middle East. He has been involved in organising a number of key conferences, including a Chatham House rule workshop on Australia’s relations with Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan (2007), sponsored by the International Centre of Excellence for Asia Pacific Studies, and a conference on the Arab Revolution with Freedom House, sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

In 2000 Professor Akbarzadeh was the Middle East Studies conference co-convener and served as the Central and West Asia Councillor for the Asian Studies Association of Australia (1999-2004). He has promoted Asian studies through contacts with industry and the academia by research and publication. He guest edited a special issue of Asian Studies Review on the Middle East (Vol.25, No.2, 2001) and a special issue of the Journal of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies on Globalization (Vol. 5, No.2, 2000).

He has published more than 40 refereed papers. Among his latest publications are a sole-authored book on Uzbekistan and the United States, a co-authored book on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East, and a co-authored book on Muslim Active Citizenship in the West.

Professor Akbarzadeh is the founding Editor of the Islamic Studies Series, published by Melbourne University Press, and a regular public commentator. He has produced key reports for the Australian Research Council (ARC) on Australian based scholarship on Islam, and also for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) on Muslim Voices and Mapping Employment and Education; and has produced a report on Islam in the Australian media. He acted as Convenor of the Islam Node for the ARC Asia Pacific Futures Research Network.

He is a member of the Editorial Board of four leading refereed journals: Global Change, Peace & Security, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, the Journal of Asian Security & International Affairs; and an International Advisory Board member of the World Journal of Islamic History and Civilization.

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Dr Vanessa Barolsky is an Associate Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI). Her research focuses on countering violent extremism, political and criminal violence, social cohesion and reconciliation, law and justice. She has published a number of reports and peer reviewed articles as well as book chapters on these subjects and has presented her work extensively. Prior to her employment at ADI Dr Barolsky was a Research Specialist at the Democracy, Governance and Service Delivery Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa where she led more than a dozen studies. She has also worked in some of South Africa’s key democratic institutions such as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Her PHD on the TRC analysed the discursive production of knowledge about political violence at the Commission.

She is currently an investigator on two projects on countering violent extremism. One study is a comprehensive mapping of support service for young people at risk of radicalising to violent extremism for the Countering Violent Extremism Centre in the Department of Home Affairs. The second project, also for the CVE Centre, investigates the role of communities in reintegrating the families of Australians who have left the country to participate in overseas conflicts. In 2017 she won a grant with Dr Matteo Vergani from the Research Institute on Social Cohesion (RIOSC) in the Department of Premier and Cabinet in Victoria to conduct an evaluation of two creative interventions to build social cohesion and resilience to violent extremism among young people. Prior to this Dr Barolsky led a major international study in South Africa and Brazil on the role of social cohesion in preventing violence in developing world contexts. In 2016 she was awarded the Bellagio Academic Residency fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Award for Sabbatical Study. She completed a six-month honorary fellowship at the Centre for Global Studies, RMIT University in 2017.

Publications are available at http://independent.academia.edu/VanessaBarolsky

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Dr Vivian Gerrand is a Max Weber Fellow in the Global Governance Programme, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, where she also holds an Endeavour Award. Her interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on migrant displacement, belonging, mobility, image-making and representation through a comparative cultural studies lens. Vivian was awarded her PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2013. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University. Her current work builds on her long term research with Somalis living in the diaspora and pursues two further areas of inquiry: re-imagined citizenship and building resilience to violent extremism.

+ Extended Biography

Dr Zahid Shahab Ahmed has performed numerous evaluations of CVE programs in Pakistan, especially of the projects supported by the US State Department, and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). During 2015-16, USIP funded Dr Ahmed’s project on ‘Peace Education in Pakistan’ that assessed the impact of nine interventions on preventing violent extremism through education (PVE-E). In 2017, he was invited to UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris for an expert meeting on PVE-E. He has ongoing collaboration with UNESCO and Hedayah on PVE-E. Since 2010, Dr Ahmed is Peace Direct’s peacebuilding expert for Pakistan and in this role he has organised several CVE project, including facilitation of a virtual dialogue of over 50 CVE experts from Pakistan. Dr Ahmed holds an MA in Peace Education from United Nations mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica, and PhD in Political and International Studies from the University of New England in Australia.

+ Extended Biography

Julian studied anthropology, Asian history and culture and religious studies at the University of Sydney, and wrote on religious identity formation for his postgraduate research work. Since joining Macquarie Julian has been the course convener for the PICT901: International Security and PICT913: Asia Pacific Security, and is currently the Coordinator of Learning and Teaching. Julian’s research projects include an ongoing program examining and assessing Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) in Australia, especially at ways that academics and industry can work together to produce CVE outcomes. Julian also has an interest in the relationship between religions and international security in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific. Julian is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism (JPICT), an international peer-reviewed academic journal published by Routledge.

+ Extended Biography

Luke Howie is in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University and is Deputy Director of the Global Terrorism Research Centre (GTReC). He is also a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. His research explores behavioural and business responses to terrorism. Howie is the author of Terrorism, the Worker and the City (2017, Routledge) and Witnesses to Terror (2012, Palgrave Macmillan).

+ Extended Biography

DB Subedi is currently working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. Prior to this, DB Subedi was a lecturer in the School of Government, Development and International Affairs (SGDIA) at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji. His research interest focuses on the nexus between conflict, security and development, and its implications for peacebuilding and state-building, development, social cohesion, human rights and security in the Asia Pacific region. He received a PhD degree from the University of New England, Australia, where his PhD thesis studied reintegration and rehabilitation of Maoist ex-combatants in post-conflict peacebuilding in Nepal. His most recent research work studies peace and development approaches to preventing and countering violent extremism, especially in places where violent extremism overlaps with on-going conflicts, neo-nationalism and social divisions. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Security Governance (CSG) in Canada and an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New England in Australia. In 2016, he received the ‘Civil Society Scholar Fellowship’ from the Open Society Foundation in USA.

DB Subedi also has an extensive experience in the non-government sector, having worked for international agencies in Asia including United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women, International Alert UK, Care International, Mercy Corps, Asian Academy for Peace Research and Development, Peacebuilding and Development Institute in Sri Lanka and Peaceworks Australia. His work experience in the Asia Pacific comes from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Philippines, Fiji and Australia. His most recent publications include Combatants to Civilians (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and Reconciliation in Conflict-Affected Communities (co-edited volume, Springer 2018).

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Jacinta Carroll joined the National Security College as the Director, National Security Policy, in August 2017 and is now Senior Research Fellow in Counter-Terrorism and Social Cohesion. She is a member of NSC’s Futures Council and works across the NSC’s professional development, policy and academic programs.

Previously, Jacinta was the inaugural Head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Counter Terrorism Policy Centre, a position she held since August 2015. Jacinta joined ASPI from the Australian Government where she had held a variety of Senior Executive appointments, and worked in the Department of Defence and the Attorney-General’s Department. Her career experience includes working on national security, counter-terrorism, strategic policy, border security, military operations, campaign planning and scenario development, information management, and international policy with a particular focus on the Middle East and Afghanistan; she has served in Iraq.

Jacinta is a graduate of the Australian National University, has post-graduate qualifications in management from Flinders University, and holds Masters degrees from the University of Sydney and Deakin University. Her Masters theses examined United Nations Peacekeeping, and Asia-Pacific Regional Security. She is a graduate of the Australian Defence College’s Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Graduate School of Management, and serves on a number of boards including the United Service Institute - ACT and John XXIII College ANU. She has completed the Australian Public Service Commission’s Senior Executive Service Leadership Program, the Defence and Industry Study Course, the Australian Public Sector Management Course and the Middle East Diplomats course at the Truman Institute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a member of the AVERT (Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism) Research Network and the National Security and Terrorism Program Advisory Council, Deakin University.

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Dr. Alexandra Phelan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Monash University's Gender, Peace and Security Centre (Monash GPS). Her research at GPS focusses on integrating gender approaches in understanding terrorism and violent extremism. Her PhD dissertation examined why the Colombian government alternated between counterinsurgency and negotiation with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Based on an extensive examination of negotiation documents and primary FARC material, fieldwork and interviews with former and active FARC, ELN, M-19 and AUC members, she critically examined the role that insurgent legitimation activities had on influencing Colombian government response between 1982-2016. Immediately prior to commencing her postdoctoral fellowship, Alex was a visiting researcher at Georgetown University's Centre for Security Studies, Walsh School of Foreign Service. She serves on the editorial board for the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and has a forthcoming special issue for the journal focussing on gender, women and terrorism

+ Extended Biography

Jacqui True, FASSA, is Professor of International Relations and Director of Monash University’s Centre for Gender, Peace and Security. She is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow and a Global Fellow, Peace Research Institute (PRIO), Oslo. She received her PhD from York University, Toronto, Canada, an honorary doctorate from Lund University Sweden in 2018, and has held academic positions at Michigan State University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Auckland as well as visiting fellowships at the Australian National University and Gothenburg University, Sweden.

Professor True has authored more than 14 books, and over 100 articles and book chapters with her work on gender mainstreaming and global governance, violence against women, women, peace and security and feminist methdologies among the most cited in the fields of international relations and gender studies. Her book, The Political Economy of Violence Against Women (Oxford, 2012) won the American Political Science Association’s 2012 biennial prize for the best book in human rights, the British International Studies Association International Political Economy book prize in 2013, and the 2015 biennial Australian Political Science Association’s Carole Pateman book prize for gender and politics.

Her current research is focused on three areas of relevance to the broader Women, Peace and Security agenda: Understanding the political economy of violence against women, including sexual and gender-based violence in conflict in Asia Pacific; Examining the gender dimensions and women’s roles in recruitment, support for and prevention of violent extremism and; Analysing gender-sensitive peace agreements and their impact on women’s participation after conflict. This research is funded by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the United Nations. She recently edited the volume Scandalous Economics: The Politics of Gender and Financial Crises (Oxford, 2016) with Aida Hozic and is co-editor with Sara Davies of The Oxford Handbook on Women, Peace and Security (2018).

+ Extended Biography

Dr Muhammad Iqbal is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities (ISILC), Victoria University, Melbourne. He is also a CI in the Applied Security Science Partnership (ASSP), which brings together policing and security practitioners with academics to collaboratively build robust evidence on behavioural indicators of violent extremism.

Dr Iqbal has undertaken quantitative research on the issue of violent extremism in Australia and Indonesia, and has utilised experimental design, data mining, web scraping, social network analysis, and quantitative text analysis in his research. His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, New Media and Society, Social Science & Medicine, and Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.

+ Extended Biography

Dr Joshua Roose is a political sociologist. His research interests include Islam in western contexts, political Islam, sharia and legal pluralism, multiculturalism and citizenship. He has written numerous peer-reviewed articles about these subjects in key journals.

He received his PhD from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute . Joshua is a visiting research scholar at the East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School and has been a visiting scholar at New York University and the City University of New York. Joshua is the Secretary of the Australian Sociological Association and the Legal Theory Section Associate Editor for the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Social Theory. He currently sits on the Federal Attorney-General’s Department’s National Panel of Experts for Countering Violent Extremism and is a member of the Victorian Governments Institute for Social Cohesion.

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Samaya (Maya) Borom is a PhD Candidate at Swinburne University where her research focuses on the use of discursive strategies in cinema in regards to representations of terrorism and how contraventions of international law and human rights may be normalised. Maya is a lawyer and academic who also has strong working interests in human rights, national security and international and human rights law. Samaya is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Junior Fellow for Crime and Terrorism ThinkTank for Global Research Network (UK) with various other memberships including Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts/Australian Film Institute (AACTA/AFI), Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) and Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society (ANZLHS).

+ Extended Biography

Lydia has a broad range of policy, academic and private sector experience, and has spent her career focusing on the intersection between governance and security — whether it be understanding the rationales behind terrorism and counterinsurgency, how to create governance systems that lead to functioning societies, effective policing strategies or the security and policy effects of new technology. She is currently a director of Arcana Partners, a strategic consultancy firm.

Lydia’s professional background in politics, international relations and security has focused on US national security policy, Middle East politics and intelligence. She was international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York where she analysed political and security trends in the Middle East. She also served as a political advisor for the US Department of Defense in Iraq, where she worked closely with Iraqi officials on political negotiations and constitutional drafting. In Australia, Lydia held fellowships with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Macquarie University, specialising in intelligence, national security and cyber security.

Lydia also has extensive national security and law enforcement experience. She was most recently a senior policy advisor to the Boston Police Department, working on countering violent extremism, intelligence and counterterrorism, and community policing strategies. She has also worked as a senior counterterrorism and intelligence analyst for the New York Police Department.

Lydia is a frequent media commentator and conference speaker and has published widely on her areas of expertise. She holds a BA in International Relations from Boston College and a Masters in International Security from Georgetown University.

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Jared is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Texas A&M International University. Jared completed his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice and Criminology, with an Option in Terrorism Studies, at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2019. He also holds two Master's degrees, one in Criminal Justice from UMass Lowell and one in National Security Studies from the California State University at San Bernardino, along with a Bachelor's in Political Science and a Certificate in Indo-Pacific Languages, both from the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa.

Jared's dissertation focused on the dynamics of deprivation in ethnic conflicts. His current research interests focus primarily on collective action within the context of illicit networks, including both gangs and terrorism organizations. Jared studies the factors that cause individuals to engage in terrorist activity, extremist propaganda, the dynamics of conflict, and collective violence perpetrated by both extremist organizations and criminal street gangs. His research has been featured in Crime & Delinquency, Criminal Justice and Behavior, International Journal of Cyber Criminology, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and Terrorism & Political Violence.

Jared has also been involved in several projects funded by the National Science Foundation, Department of Justice, and Defense Intelligence Agency (via CSUSB). Additionally, he managed the finances for a $2.4 million NSF grant at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. During his final year of graduate school, Jared managed the day-to-day operations of a ~$800,000 Department of Defense Minerva grant (via UMass Lowell, PI: Dr. Neil Shortland) investigating the physiological impact of exposure to extremist propaganda. Since graduating, Jared has actively submitted competitive proposals for funding from a federal and non-profit agencies.

Jared spent one year working as a Research Analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office where I worked on several engagements, mostly focusing on GAO's defense portfolio. His research was presented to the U.S. Congress and directly resulted in cost-savings to the American taxpayer. This experience further refined his methodological expertise and the applications of a broad range of mixed methods approaches to applied evaluation research.

In Jared's free time, he enjoys reading and watching movies and shows; political thrillers are always a win! Jared is always ready to explore new places, travel the world, and try new cuisines! He love all things Disney (but Mickey and Stitch are by far his favorites). Jared is very passionate about music and art and has performed in the world premiere of Jan Van der Roost's Dances of Innocence - he still enjoys playing the flute and piccolo in his spare time. Jared has also been fortunate enough to have had the three most amazing puppies in the world!

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+ Extended Biography

Mubashar is a Bangladeshi academic and has done his Post-Doctoral Research fellowship at Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo. He is an expert in religion, politics, security and migration in South Asia. He is published widely in academic journals and recently co-edited a book on Radicalization in South Asia (forthcoming Sage 2019).

Mubashar has worked as a humanitarian journalist for IRIN News, the world’s largest humanitarian news agency. He has worked in public relations and communications and advised various government departments in Bangladesh, UN agencies and International NGOs.

In 2018 he was awarded an Emerging Early Career Researcher by the US based Common Ground Research Network. Mubashar completed his PhD degree at Griffith University, where he founded www.alochonaa.com , an online platform to promote dialogue.

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Dr Emily Corner is a Lecturer of Criminology at the Centre for Social Research and Methods at the Australian National University. Prior to joining the ANU, Emily was a Research Associate at the department of Security and Crime Science at University College London, working on projects examining lone and group-based terrorism, radicalisation, mass murderers, and fixated individuals.

Emily's doctoral research focused on examining mental disorders and terrorist behaviour, and won the Terrorism Research Initiative’s Thesis award in 2016. She has published in leading psychology, forensic science, criminology, threat assessment, and political science journals.

Emily has worked on research projects funded by Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the European Union, the National Institute of Justice, the Department of Defence, and the Department of Home Affairs. Prior to her doctoral research she worked across step-down, low, and medium secure psychiatric hospitals, in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

+ Extended Biography

Dr Mariam Farida is an Academic Learning Facilitator and UNSW Middle East expert. Dr Farida has been awarded her PhD in Security Studies and Criminology. Her research interests include Middle East politics, non-state groups, global security, terrorism, counterterrorism operations, and national security. Her research has been published in journals such as International Review for Social Research, Journal for Policing, Intelligence, and Counter Terrorism, and Handbook of Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: A Global Survey of Threats, Tactics, and Characteristics. Dr Farida is also the author of Religion and Hezbollah: Political Ideology and Legitimacy (Routledge, 2020).

+ Extended Biography

Dr. Joana Cook is a graduate of King’s College London where she completed her MA and PhD in the Department of War Studies (BA University of Regina). Joana's research more broadly focuses on women in violent extremism, countering violent extremism, and counter-terrorism practices. More recent scholarly interests include non-state actor governance, and factors and pathways to radicalization. She was appointed Associate Professor of Terrorism and Political Violence in 2020.

+ Extended Biography

Gabriel O Adebayo is part of Doctoral Programme in School, Education, Society, and Culture at the University of Helsinki. Gabriel has published extenstively on areas including human security, religious education and counter-radicalisation.

+ Extended Biography

Dr. Shepherd is an Associate Professor in Forensic Psychology at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology. His research explores cross-cultural issues at the intersection of psychology and the criminal justice system. He has developed an international body of research and writing on risk factors for violence, as well as the social, cultural and mental health needs of individuals who have contact with the criminal justice system. He also has expertise in the development of community violence prevention initiatives and how to work effectively with multi-cultural populations in medico-legal settings. Dr. Shepherd is a 2018 Australian Research Council DECRA recipient and was an American-Australian Fulbright scholar in cultural competence. He was recently named an ABC Top 5 early career researcher and received the 2020 Victorian Government Multicultural Award for Excellence in Justice.

+ Extended Biography

Proefssor Thomas completed undergraduate and postgraduate training in social psychology at the Australian National University, and was a Research Associate at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security (ANU) before moving to Murdoch University in 2010 to take up a teaching and research position in the School of Psychology. Professor Thomas was an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Awardee between 2012-2015, and is currently a Professor in the School of Psychology and an Associate Editor at the British Journal of Social Psychology.

Professor Thomas' research is primarily informed by the social identity approach to group processes and intergroup relations. It adopts quantatiative cross-sectional and experimental methods to study how exposure to different stimuli and different social contexts shapes people’s engagement (or disengagement) with social justice issues. With the advent of new forms of technology (social media: Facebook, Twitter) a lot of our analysis also focuses on how online social interactions shape people’s orientation to act to confront inequality and injustice. Our work identifies how novel groups form through (online and offline) interaction that allows people to become the change that they want to see in the world.

+ Extended Biography

Cieran Harries is a Doctor of Psychology (Clinical and Forensic) candidate and research fellow at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology. He has conducted research in the areas of grievance-fuelled and ideologically motivated violence, youth violence, offender risk assessment and management, forensic mental health, and mental health law. He has held clinical positions at the Children’s Court Clinic (Children’s Court of Victoria), Thomas Embling Hospital, and the Melbourne Assessment Prison; this work has involved the assessment and management of people at risk of violent extremism and grievance-fuelled violence. He is the current Secretary of the Victorian chapter of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law and the inaugural President of the organisation’s Early Career body

+ Extended Biography

Professor David Bright is a criminologist and forensic psychologist. Prior to a career in academia, he worked in a range of clinical and forensic settings including community mental health services, police agencies, courts, and prisons. After completing a PhD in forensic psychology in 2008, Professor Bright joined the National Drug and Alcohol Centre at UNSW, where he conducted research on illicit drug markets and organised criminal groups. In 2012 he commenced a teaching and research position with the School of Social Sciences at UNSW where he subsequently took up the role of Deputy Head of School (Research). In 2016, he was appointed Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW. He commenced at Flinders University in 2017.

Professor Bright's research interests include criminal networks, organised crime, terrorism, drugs and crime, and desistance from crime. He is Director of the Flinders Illicit Networks Lab which conducts ground-breaking research using social network analysis and related approaches to study organised criminal groups and terrorist groups. He is also convenor of the ANZSOC Thematic Group on Illicit Networks.

Professor Bright has been Chief Investigator on five consecutive ARC funded projects as well as projects funded by industry and government (ie Category 2 and 3 funds). He is the author (with Associate Professor Chad Whelan) of Organised Crime and Law Enforcement: A Network Perspective (published by Routledge in 2021).

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Dr. Mary Beth Altier is a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs where she directs the concentration in Transnational Security and Initiative on Emerging Threats.

Dr. Altier’s research interests are in international security, nationalism and ethnic conflict, political violence, and political behavior. Her recent work centers on the reasons why individuals support or participate in political violence, especially terrorism, in developed and developing democracies. She has also studied the disengagement and reintegration of violent extremists and the factors that precipitate re-engagement/recidivism. Dr. Altier’s research on why citizens support armed parties in democratic elections was awarded the American Political Science Association’s Ernst B. Haas Award, and she is also the recipient of the American Political Science Association’s European Politics and Society’s Best Paper Award. Her research is featured in a number of journals including the Journal of Peace Research, Security Studies, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. She serves on the Editorial Board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. Dr. Altier has been invited to present her research to government, intelligence, and security professionals in a number of countries and international organizations including NATO and EUROPOL. She has also been featured in a number of media outlets including The Washington Post, WIRED, USA Today, Bloomberg Businessweek, Vox, The Daily Beast, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and Minneapolis Star Tribune.

+ Extended Biography

Paul is a Professor of Security and Crime Science at University College London. Previous to joining UCL, Professor Gill was a postdoctoral research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Pennsylvania State University. He has over 50 publications on the topic of terrorist behaviour. He has conducted research funded by the European Research Council, Office for Naval Research, the Department of Homeland Security, DSTL, the European Union, the National Institute of Justice, CREST, Public Safety Canada and MINERVA. Collectively these grants have been worth over 10 million euro. These projects focused upon various aspects of terrorist behavior including the IED development, creativity, terrorist network structures, and lone-actor terrorism.His doctoral research focused on the underlying individual and organizational motivations behind suicide bombing. This piece of research won the Jean Blondel Prize for the best Ph.D. thesis in Political Science in Europe for 2010. He has published in leading psychology, criminology and political science journals.