Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Global Insights. Real-World Impact.
Combatting Extremism.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a leading scholar in the study of extremism, radicalization, and polarization, whose work bridges academic research and practical interventions. As the director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University, her research informs policy, media, and community-based strategies to address pressing global challenges. Her publications and contributions offer critical insights into understanding and preventing the dynamics of hate and violence.

Publications

Photo Credit: Elliott O'Donovan

About Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an award-winning author and scholar of extremism and radicalization. She is the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at the American University in Washington, DC, where she is also a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education. Dr. Miller-Idriss regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress or briefs policy, security, education and intelligence agencies in the U.S., the United Nations, and other countries on trends in domestic violent extremism and strategies for prevention and disengagement. She is a 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, a member of the College of Fellows at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and is a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur. In 2022, she served as the inaugural creative lead for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s residency program on social cohesion in Berlin, Germany.

A globally-recognized expert on far right youth and preventative interventions, Dr. Miller-Idriss is the author, co-author, or co-editor of seven books, including Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism, forthcoming from Princeton University Press in September 2025, and Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right, published by Princeton University Press in 2020 (revised paperback 2022). In addition to her academic work, Miller-Idriss writes frequently for mainstream audiences, both as an opinion columnist for MSNBC and in additional essays, with recent by-lines in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN, The Hill, Politico, The Guardian, Le Monde, Salon, and more. She appears regularly in the media as an expert source and political commentator, including regular appearances on Fareed Zakaria GPS as well as other CNN news programs, PBS News Hour, NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, NBC's Evening News with Lester Holt, C-SPAN's Washington Journal, NBC's The Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, CBS' Morning Show, and in global news outlets in over a dozen countries, including BBC News, Deutsche Welle, France 24, al Jazeera and more. She shares frequent commentary on extremism, education and preventative intervention needs on Bluesky @milleridriss.bksy.social.

Recent Awards

Miller-Idriss is a 2025-27 recipient of the Andrew Carnegie fellowship

Miller-Idriss was appointed a Member of the College of Fellows, Universität Tübingen, Germany, for 2025-26

New Book

MAN UP:

The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism

(Princeton University Press)

Man Up challenges the persistent underemphasis on gender in discussions about violent extremism and the pathways that lead to it. The book examines five case studies of misogynistic strategies used to police modern patriarchies: containment, punishment, exploitation, erasure, and enabling. Miller-Idriss shows that misogyny and gender-based violence in intimate and everyday settings are among the most reliable and unequivocal predictors of support for and precursors to mass, public, and targeted violence. She argues that recent increases in violent extremism are partially explained as violent retrenchment and reassertion of traditional patriarchy. And finally, Man Up contends that all forms of hate and hate-fueled violence—including racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and Islamophobic ideas and attacks—are linked by the connective tissue of misogyny and gender-based bigotry.

Learn More

PRAISE FOR

MAN UP:
The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism
(Princeton University Press)

“Women-hating is a central feature of far-right culture. Miller-Idriss guides us on how this happened and what it means for how gender operates today.”

—Kathleen M. Blee, coauthor of Out of Hiding: Extremist White Supremacy and How It Can Be Stopped

“Man Up helps us understand the explicit connections between misogyny, homophobia, and violence. Incredibly compelling.”

—C. J. Pascoe, author of Nice Is Not Enough: Inequality and the Limits of Kindness at American High

“In Man Up, Cynthia Miller-Idriss provides a luminous and disturbing account of the misogyny at the heart of far-right movements. By connecting everyday sexism to spectacular gender-based violence, she convincingly argues that our collective failure to address seemingly mundane forms of gendered discrimination allows it to fester and eventually explode. This book comes at exactly the right time.”

—Victor Ray, author of On Critical Race Theory: Why It Matters and Why You Should Care

“A deeply researched, thoughtful book on a topic that we must grapple with fully: the manosphere, in all its particulars, its threats, and its false promises to boys and men. Every parent, teacher, and school administrator should read it. This book is a flare in the darkness.”

—Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises and Women We Buried, Women We Burned

“Man Up is a highly original and engrossing exploration of the symbiosis between misogyny, gendered violence, and political extremism. Parents and government officials alike will find Cynthia Miller-Idriss’s in-depth research, compelling analysis, and strong recommendations both timely and insightful.”

—Bruce Hoffman, coauthor of God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America

“Man Up is a crucial addition to our framework of understanding misogyny, the lifeblood of hate-fueled violence, as a generational phenomenon that is quickly becoming a national emergency. Miller-Idriss is, through her forward-thinking approach toward social health, charting a new discipline that could not be more urgent.”

—Ryan Greer, president of Bedrock, a nonprofit that works to prevent hate-fueled violence in America

“In Man Up, Cynthia Miller-Idriss offers a powerful reckoning with the gendered foundations of rising violent extremism. Drawing on case studies, data, and firsthand experiences, she shows how misogyny is a central force driving radicalization, hate, and political violence. With urgency and precision, Miller-Idriss argues that we cannot understand or interrupt extremism without grappling with the patriarchal systems and cultural norms that sustain it.”

—Tristan Bridges, University of California, Santa Barbara

“For too long, discussions of violence—whether extreme and ideological or interpersonal and intimate—have omitted gender. Miller-Idriss’s substantial powers of analysis and deep cross-cultural knowledge on this subject are overdue and deeply needed.”

—Abigail Disney, Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker and cofounder of the nonprofit Peace is Loud

BOOKS

Recent Mainstream Writing

MSNBC Columns

Miller-Idriss writes regular essays as an MSNBC columnist, weighing in on issues related to national security, extremism, challenges to democracy, and strategies for building resilience and preventing violence.

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