Join NCITE for a webinar discussing the challenges of this 2024 election, specifically rising threats to public officials and the spread of conspiracy theories. Tune in at 11 a.m. CT/12 p.m. ET, Thursday, Oct. 17.

Panelists are:

Paul Gill, Ph.D., is a professor of security and crime science at University College London. Previously he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Pennsylvania State University. He has conducted research funded by the European Research Council, Public Safety Canada, Office for Naval Research, the Department of Homeland Security, DSTL, the European Union, and the National Institute of Justice. These projects focused on various aspects of terrorist behavior including IED development, creativity, terrorist network structures, and lone-actor terrorism. He has published in leading psychology, criminology, and political science journals.

Isabelle van der Vegt, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of sociology at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on extremism and threats of violence. She obtained her Ph.D. in Security and Crime Science from University College London and worked as a scientific project manager for the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. Her current research focuses on online extremism and threats to public figures studied through the lens of text data. 

Pete Simi, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology at Chapman University. He has studied extremist groups and violence for more than 25 years, conducting interviews and observations with a range of violent gangs and political extremists. He is a researcher for NCITE. Simi is co-author of two book manuscripts, American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate and Out of Hiding: Extremist White Supremacy and How It Can be Stopped. He frequently serves as an expert legal consultant on criminal and civil cases related to political extremism.

Steven Windisch, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology and associate director of the Crime and Security Data Analytics Lab (CASDAL) in the Terrorism Research Center (TRC) at the University of Arkansas. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminology & Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Windisch relies on developmental and life-course criminology and symbolic interactionist perspective to examine the overlap between conventional criminal offending and violent extremism. His interests are primarily at the individual level and focus on how the negative consequences of physical/psychological trauma, identity formation, and interpersonal violence intersect with political extremism.