AVERT Structure and Governance

International Advisory Board

Steering Committee

Community Advisory Board

Dr. Susan Carland (Australia)

Position: Director, Bachelor of Global Studies
Institution: Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Australia
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Susan Carland is the director of the Bachelor of Global Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and completed her PhD in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University in 2015. Her research and teaching specialties focus on gender, sociology, contemporary Australia, terrorism, and Islam in the modern world. She is an expert on women and Islam and has a special focus on Muslims in Australia. Susan’s research monograph Fighting Hislam: Women, Faith and Sexism (Melbourne University Press) was published in 2017. She is also a highly engaged public intellectual and media commentator.

Professor Maura Conway (Ireland)

Position: Professor in International Security; Coordinator of VOX-Pol Network of Excellence, EU
Institution: Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland
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Prof Maura Conway’s principal research interests are in the area of terrorism and the Internet, including academic and media discourses on cyberterrorism, the functioning and effectiveness of violent political extremist online content, and violent online radicalisation. She is the author of over 40 articles and chapters in her specialist area(s). Her research has appeared in, amongst others, Media, War & Conflict, Parliamentary Affairs, Social Science Computer Review, and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. She has presented her findings before the United Nations in New York, the Commission of the European Union in Brussels, and elsewhere.

Professor Tariq Modood (UK)

Position: School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Institution: University of Bristol, UK
Read 'Intellectual Biography, Empirical Sociology and Normative Political Theory: An Interview with Tariq Modood'
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Tariq Modood is Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy and the founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol and the co-founder of the international journal, Ethnicities. He has held over 40 grants and consultancies, has over 35 (co-)authored and (co-)edited books and reports and over 200 articles and chapters. He was a Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute for part of 2013-15, a ‘Thinker in Residence’ at the Royal Academy of Flanders, Brussels in 2017.

He is highly committed to public engagement. His work is frequently cited by policy-makers and practitoners and on several occasions has influenced policy. His impact case study, ‘Influencing law, policy and public discourse on the accommodation of Muslims in Britain’ was one of three which collectively were ranked as 3rd in the UK by the Sociology 2013 REF.

He was awarded a MBE for services to social sciences and ethnic relations in 2001, was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2004 and elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2017. He served on the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, the National Equality Panel, and the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life.

His latest books include Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea (2nd ed; 2013); and as co-editor Multiculturalism Rethought (2015), Multiculturalism and Interculturalism: Debating the Dividing Lines (2016) and The Problem of Religious Diversity: European Problems, Asian Challenges (2017).

Professor Paul Thomas (UK)

Position: Professor of Youth and Policy and Associate Dean (Research)School of Education and Professional Development/Secure Societies Institute
Institution: University of Huddersfield, UK
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Paul Thomas is in the School of Education and Professional Development at the University of Huddersfield in the UK. His research focuses mainly on state policies around young people and multiculturalism, racism, community cohesion, and the prevention of extremism, and particularly on how ground-level policy-makers and practitioners mediate and enact such state policy agendas. He is the author of the highly influential Responding to the Threat of Violent Extremism: Failing to Prevent (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012), amongst many other academic articles and reports. Paul’s research has often been developed collaboratively with local government bodies, and his research findings have influenced regional, national and international policy and practice, particularly around the prevention of violent extremism.

Associate Professor Sara K. Thompson (Canada)

Position: Associate Professor Department of Criminology
Institution: Ryerson University, Canada

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Sarah Thompson holds a PhD in Criminology from University of Toronto and is Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Her research and teaching interests fall in the areas of social inequality, exclusion and marginalisation, the social and spatial distribution of urban violence, community resilience, ‘pathways’ to radicalisation/violent extremism, and the negative effects that state-based policies and practices may have on those directly affected by them. She has been with the Department Criminology at Ryerson since 2008. In 2014, Dr. Thompson was named Associate Director of the Canadian network for research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS), which engages in policy-relevant research and dissemination on issues related terrorism, security and society.

Professor Anna Triandafyllidou (Italy)

Position: Robert Schuman Chair in the Global Governance Programme and Research Area Director for Cultural Pluralism
Institution: Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy
View European University Institute Profile

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Anna Triandafyllidou is Robert Schuman Chair in the Global Governance Programme and Research Area Director for Cultural Pluralism in the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. She has been Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges since 2001 and is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. Anna’s main areas of research and teaching are the governance of cultural diversity, migration, and nationalism from a European and international perspective. She has co-ordinated 30 international research projects in these fields, generating over 12 million Euro in research funds from international, European and national sources. Her publications include more than 120 articles in refereed journals and chapters in collective volumes, five authored books and 20 edited and co-edited volumes.

Professor Michael Ungar (Canada)

Position: Professor of Social Work, Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience
Institution: Dalhousie University, Canada
View Research Resilience Profile
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Michael Ungar, Ph.D., is the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community resilience at Dalhousie University where he founded and directs the Resilience Research Centre. He has designed multisite longitudinal research and evaluation projects in collaboration with organizations such as The Human Development and Education Branch of the World Bank, The Red Cross, and national public health agencies. With over $10M in funded research, Dr. Ungar’s studies span more than a dozen low, middle, and high-income countries, with many focused on the resilience of marginalized children and families, and adult populations experiencing mental health challenges on the job and in their personal lives. More recently, Dr. Ungar’s research has included studies on resilience to violent extremism in communities experiencing structural and social disadvantage. Dr. Ungar has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the subject of resilience in stressed environments and is the author of 14 books for mental health professionals, researchers and parents.

Professor Michele Grossman, Alfred Deakin Institute (AVERT Convenor)

Position: Research Chair in Diversity and Community Resilience and Convenor, AVERT Research Network
Institution: Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University
Contact: ADI-Avert@deakin.edu.au

Please see Research Member profile for more information

Professor Greg Barton, Alfred Deakin Institute

Position: Professor of Global Islamic Politics
Institution: Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University

Please see Research Member profile for more information

Shahram Akbarzadeh, Alfred Deakin Institute

Position: Research Professor
Institution: Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University
View Deakin University Profile

Please see Research Member profile for more information

Dr Vivian Gerrand, Alfred Deakin Institute (AVERT Coordinator)

Position: Research Fellow, and Coordinator of the AVERT Research Network (as of 30th July 2018)
Institution: Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University

Please see Research Member profile for more information

Lise Waldek, Macquarie University

Position: Lecturer
Institution: Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University

Please see Research Member profile for more information

Associate Professor, Adrian Cherney

Position: Associate Professor of Criminology
Institution: University of Queensland
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Dr Debra Smith, Victoria University

Position: Senior Research Fellow
Institution: Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities (ISILC), Victoria University, Australia
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Levi West, Charles Sturt University (ACT Campus)

Position: Director of Terrorism Studies
Institution: Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Sturt University

Please see Research Member profile for more information

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