Latest Book:
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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
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.
A globally-recognized expert on far right youth and preventative interventions, Dr. Miller-Idriss is the author, co-author, or co-editor of six books, including Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right, published by Princeton University Press in October 2020. 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.
Dr. Miller-Idriss frequently advises or consults with foundations and organizations seeking expertise on radicalization and extremism, and has provided expert consultation in legal cases involving radicalization and extremist violence. She tweets frequent commentary on extremism, education and preventative intervention needs on twitter @milleridriss.
New Book
Hate in the Homeland:
The New Global Far Right
A startling look at the unexpected places where violent hate groups recruit young people.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
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."
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."
Press & Reviews
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
Meeting the Challenge of White Nationalist Terrorism at Home and Abroad (EventID=109964)
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.
December 16, 2022
June 15, 2021
Miller-Idriss wrote for The Atlantic about what the U.S. is getting wrong about the fight to combat far-right extremism: "The U.S. is fighting extremism all wrong."
January 5, 2022
Miller-Idriss wrote about the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection for The New York Times: "America's Most Urgent Threat Now Comes From Within."
January 3, 2022
Miller-Idriss wrote for Foreign Affairs about what the U.S. is getting wrong about the fight to combat far-right extremism: "How Extremism Went Mainstream: Washington Needs a New Approach to Preventing Far-Right Extremism."
July 8, 2022
Miller-Idriss wrote for Foreign Affairs about how to counter online hate and extremism: "America's Epidemic of Hate"
For Lawfare, Miller-Idriss wrote about the debacle in hate crimes reporting this year: "The FBI's 2021 Hate Crimes Data is Worse than Meaningless."
Selected appearances: In The News
Appearance on PBS News Hour, "How inoculating Americans against radicalization can fight domestic terrorism."
June 27, 2021
Appearance on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, "The Threat of Far Right Extremism in the U.S.," to discuss the U.S. Capitol attack.
January 17, 2021
Appearance on the U.K.'s Channel 4 News, "Difficult to get the genie back in the bottle after Capitol riots, says extremism expert."
January 12, 2021
Appearance on The Young Turk's The Conversation with Adrienne Lawrence, to discuss understanding rising extremism in America and its connection to misogyny.
November 16, 2020
Appearance on CNN's GPS with Fareed Zakaria to discuss the rise of violent far-right extremism in the western world and the reasons behind it.
October 11, 2020
Appearance on NPR's All Things Considered with Audie Cornish, to talk about the growth of right-wing militia groups in 2020.
October 9, 2020
Appearance on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt to talk about far-right organizing related to the nationwide protests about COVID-19 related shelter-in-place orders.
April 20, 2020
Appearance on Al Jazeera’s UpFront with Mehdi Hasan and Christian Picciolini, “How big a threat is white nationalism?”.
March 14, 2020