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.
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 serves on the international advisory board of the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) in Oslo, Norway and is a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)'s Tracking Hate and Extremism Advisory Committee. Dr. Miller-Idriss is a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur.
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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
In April 2019, Miller-Idriss was awarded the DC Sociological Society (DCSS) Morris Rosenberg Award
In April 2019, Miller-Idriss was awarded the AU College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Award for Exceptional Impact
New Book
MAN UP​
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.
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BOOKS
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What People Say about Hate in the Homeland
Cas Mudde
Author, The Far Right Today
"Highly original. Miller-Idriss argues that we must understand the mainstreaming of the far right in its specific spaces, in particular those spaces where youths will encounter the far right. She shows how the far right pushes boundaries and attracts youths, slowly but steadily radicalizing them and drawing them in further."
Kathleen Belew
Author of Bring the War Home
"From a foremost expert in the field, Hate in the Homeland is the most sweeping and persuasive account yet of the worldwide threat to democracy posed by the resurgent white power movement and other far-right activists. In examining the spaces and processes of radicalization, Miller-Idriss offers hope for real solutions. This book is required reading, especially for journalists, policymakers, and activists."
Tom Nichols
Author of The Death of Expertise
"Cynthia Miller-Idriss wants us to focus not only on the global movements that empower right-wing extremism but also on our daily experiences and interactions with extremists, as a way of understanding the danger we face. Most importantly, she uses this unique perspective to offer new ideas about how to counter the hate in our midst."
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Kathleen M. Blee
Author of Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s
"Hate in the Homeland is a profound, robust, and highly original work by one of the world's very top scholars of the far right. In this pathbreaking and important book, Cynthia Miller-Idriss explores critical, overlooked avenues for combatting the rise of far-right extremism across the globe."
Heidi Beirich
Global Project against Hate and Extremism
"Once again, Cynthia Miller-Idriss has shown her mastery of one of the most terrifying and growing social movements of our time. But this book does something much more important than just that, because Miller-Idriss also gives us solutions. Hate in the Homeland is a must-read for academics and also for practitioners working to stop the spread of hateful ideas among young people."
Oren Segal
Center on Extremism
"An important contribution to our understanding of modern hate and how it spreads, this book is not just for experts who study extremist movements but for anyone who cares about how hate can penetrate the spaces all around us."
Explore our work at PERIL
Recent Mainstream Writing
Miller-Idriss wrote for Foreign Affairs about how to counter online hate and extremism: "America's Epidemic of Hate"
June 27, 2021
Miller-Idriss wrote for Foreign Affairs about how to counter online hate and extremism: "America's Epidemic of Hate"
January 17, 2021
Press & Reviews about Hate in the Homeland
Reviewed as one of five of December 2020's "biggest releases" in the U.K.: "Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss argues convincingly that “innovative, flexible and youth-driven ideas” are vital in the battle to counter the online transnational recruiting of fascist zealots."
The Independent
"Hate in the Homeland is a sweeping, superb, and scary analysis of a great and growing threat to our country
​Psychology Today
"The real threat from the far right, [Miller-Idriss'] research suggests, is not that groups ... will launch large-scale political violence, let alone a new civil war. The bigger worry is the 'mainstreaming of extremism': the spread of hateful and violent attitudes so that ever-more people share and promote them."
The Economist
"A timely book that calls for vigilance against extremism in hitherto unexpected corners, online and off."
Kirkus
