The Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) is an applied research lab preventing radicalization to violent extremism by strengthening community resilience. We design, test, and scale-up evidence based tools and strategies using the principles of public health.

Please support our work in preventing extremism! We are funded by donors and sponsors like you. To donate, click here.

PERIL's work continues to generate increased engagement and resource utilization both in the U.S. and with international partners. We could not do this work without you. Thank you for being a vital part of our community and for your commitment to preventing violent extremism.

I have spent a significant portion of my career thinking about leadership - and admiring it when I see it. Similar to the post 9/11 aphorism – “Look for the helpers,” I find myself today looking for the leaders.  I find them here at PERIL, and across the broader prevention field. I am amazed at Cynthia Miller-Idriss’ thought leadership and the tour de force that is the Man-Up book launch, which will have generated over 70 unique news articles when it is all said and done. I was proud of PERIL’s quiet leadership on panels and in working groups at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, and grateful as always for that convening; it is a solutions engine and it nurtures so much collaboration for the field. I saw leadership on display at events on the margins of UNGA, specifically around how to blunt the harms of sadistic exploitation online.

As the editor at large for the terrorism prevention vertical at HS Today, I get to read the submissions of individuals and organizations who are leading prevention efforts in their city, their state, and nationally; there are nearly sixty pieces of prevention content now on the vertical! And I watch organizations like Bedrock rally and support amazing NGOs from the prevention community, the anti-hate community, the pro-democracy community and the civil rights community, so that collectively we can be more than the sum our parts.

Finally, I was proud to represent the prevention community of practice in a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on October 28th, underscoring the importance of evidence-based prevention that works to prevent all forms of hate-fueled and political violence while reinforcing, not eroding, our Constitutionally-protected freedoms. 

To the current and future leaders of your communities, I challenge you to find ways to enact prevention, and continue empathetic dialogues - whether that is in a school, at your workplace, volunteering, or in civil engagement.

Here’s to the leaders.

William Braniff, Executive Director, PERIL

'A Better Kind of Politics' Virtual Workshop: Beyond The Echo Chamber with Marylin Rodriguez and Kristin Wall, Thursday, November 20, 2025 from 1-2:30 PM ET

8,891
Downloads of resources

21 In-Person and Live-streamed Events Completed

90 Media appearances

Prior to joining PERIL as the Director of Research, Dr. Jensen was the Research Director at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, where he led the center’s research on terrorism and targeted violence in the United States.

Dr. Jensen’s work focuses on radicalization to, and disengagement from, extremism, community reintegration, and violence prevention. His work has been published in Criminology, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Perspectives on Terrorism, and others. He earned his PhD in Political Science from Arizona State University.

Dr. Pasha Dashtgard, PERIL's previous Director of Research, is now the new Director of Interventions, focusing on bringing his expertise in creating and testing PERIL's evidence-based solutions and tools.

PERIL additionally welcomes the following new faculty and staff to our team:

PERIL's Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss launched her latest book: Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism, published by Princeton University Press. Get your copy and send us your thoughts! PERIL@american.edu.

Cynthia participated in over 70 media appearances and book launch events so far, with more to come!

Also listen to the full episodes of "Man Up: Conversations About Gendered Hate in the Digital Age" Podcast.  Produced by Long Story Short, each episode takes a deep dive with Dr. Miller-Idriss, leading extremism expert, into the overlooked role of gender and how this fuels online hate and provides gateways to other violence against women and other communities and what we can all do to counter it.

CARE TEAM UPDATES

CARE Michigan is hosting ongoing community trainings. Follow their Facebook page where future events are posted or contact: CARE_Centers@american.edu!

CARE Michigan participated in the  Neighborhood Resource Summit on October 15th from 6-8 PM, hosted by the City of Lansing.

CARE and the public health approach were featured in this article from KFF Health News, check it out here.

 COMMS TEAM UPDATES

The expanded PERIL Team participated in Press and Media Training, and we facilitated coordination of multiple press engagements, from the first episode of USA Today's Extremely Normal short documentary with journalist Will Carless, to Cynthia Miller-Idriss' long form video interview on PBS' Firing Line with Margaret Hoover. This last quarter,  our comms analytics showed:

PERIL's website saw 21,000 page visits,

The DUCC website saw 7,100 page visits,

PERIL Newsletter grew by 136 subscribers to a total of 7,040,

LinkedIn grew by 495 followers to a total of 3,959,

Bluesky grew by 298 followers to total of 3,893, and,

META grew by 93 followers to a total of 192 with 42.4K organic views.

 CODEBOOKING - RESEARCH TEAM

PERIL's Codebooking Research Team has been working to identify and evaluate novel, emerging, and entrenched extremist tropes. The team has analyzed content relating to antisemitism, male supremacy, misogyny, the Black manosphere, and gendered hate related to higher education environments. PERIL's codebooks rely on mixed-methods approaches, using AI-assisted data scraping techniques and hand coding from a team of qualitative and quantitative researchers. These posts are drawn from both mainstream and fringe platforms, with access to over 48 platforms. The codebooking team's findings help to inform PERIL and our partners of the current landscapes of extremism, providing methodically rigorous evidence to support how we respond to such hate.

Since January: 

4 codebooks were completed, with one of those being a longitudinal codebook that was essentially three codebooks topics in one - covering antisemitism, digital male supremacy, the Black manosphere, and male supremacy and misogyny in higher education;

Posts qualitatively coded: 2,699;

Quantitative coding: up to 50,000 posts per day collected in sample periods; and,

354 tropes discovered.

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS TEAM UPDATES

PERIL represented our work on several panels and core events at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in September. Director of Strategic Partnerships Hala V. Furst moderated a panel with global experts on community-based campaigns. All of these panels reinforced how PERIL is leading the field with innovative research-based interventions and prevention approaches. 

Continuing the theme of innovative leadership, founder Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Director of Strategic Partnerships Hala V. Furst, and Director of Public Affairs Seth Limmer traveled to Los Angeles this month to engage a new community for PERIL - Hollywood! We were honored to have the opportunity to engage with members of the creative community in LA at a dinner hosted by the Impact Guild. Content creators are essential partners in creating narrative change and driving national attention to both the problem of violent extremism, and the solutions. Showcasing PERIL’s work with this audience will have significant reverberations in the field, and we are excited about what comes next.

While in LA we also met with the Museum of Tolerance about including a PERIL curriculum in their Mobile Museum of Tolerance project, another opportunity to create narrative change by building psychological resilience into their dynamic and interactive learning modules. Cynthia met with Ms. Magazine to discuss her new book, another avenue to creating national awareness. And rounding out a full trip, we met with the City of LA to discuss training needs and the CARE program. 

After this trip, PERIL is poised to change hearts, minds, and policy as LA, and California continues to lead the nation on innovative policy approaches.

PERIL has brought its leadership both into the policy realm and out into the world.  In the wake of the recent horrific spike in political violence, Director of Public Affairs, Seth Limmer, together with Director of Strategic Partnership Hala V. Furst, are deepening engagement with our partners in state government.  We are working closely with elected officials and key agencies in Washington State, Illinois, and Michigan. Thanks to the determination of Executive Director Bill Braniff, our state work will also soon be expanding to both New York and Connecticut.   And, given the interconnectedness of the fuel of political violence, PERIL is playing a major role in international conversations as well.  

This year’s Megaweek brought together over 250 participants from 9 countries providing a unique forum to address some of the most pressing and complex challenges facing those working to prevent and counter violent extremism. The wide range of panels and discussions offered critical insight into emerging forms of grievance and social polarization, as well as the implications for violence prevention. PERIL leadership and research team presented in several sessions and participated in meetings with partners including Digital Public Square, the Canadian Practitioners Network for the Prevention of Extremist Violence, Moonshot, and the Christchurch Call Foundation, with whom we work on Project Catalyst. Together with our colleagues at Project Catalyst, we are also in early stages on planning a major 2026 international policy conference on a public health approach to countering the rise of gendered violence.

Dr. Pasha Dashtgard (Director of Interventions), right, talking about PERIL's work at the 2025 Megaweek Event Series: Polarization and Preventing Violent Extremism, hosted by: The Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence.

Kristen Wall was a guest speaker for a class titled 'Peace Paradigms in Divided Societies' at the School of International Studies.

TRAINING TEAM UPDATES

Marylin Rodriguez co-chaired an important discussion about Youth Red Flags Working Group at Eradicate Hate. About the Youth Red Flags Working Group: an international working group of 60 practitioners from the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and other countries addressing the rise in nihilistic violent extremism targeting youth online. We've developed a set of one-page guides designed for law enforcement, parents, educators, and youth themselves—resources that bridge the gap between expert knowledge and the communities that need it most.

These adaptable, accessible tools help people identify warning signs without inadvertently sparking curiosity, and we're now translating them into multiple languages and conducting focus tests to maximize their reach and impact. This is everyday leadership in action: empowering people on the ground to recognize threats and protect vulnerable young people in their own communities.

 RESEARCH TEAM UPDATES

Deputy Director of Research Dr. Daniel Relihan served on the panel "AI and the Evolving Threat of Violent Extremism," at Eradicate Hate, examining how AI systems are accelerating radicalization through parasocial relationships and algorithmic reinforcement. Dr. Relihan outlined how PERIL's evidence-based public health approach—including resource guides for parents and educators, and interventions targeting manipulation tactics—can be leveraged to address this emerging threat, demonstrating research leadership in translating psychological science into practical prevention tools.

 RESEARCH TEAM CONTINUED

Dr. Victoria Gurevich, Senior Researcher, spoke on the panel at The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution on a panel titled "Pathways Forward: How Can We Restore Trust and Faith in America?" this past Monday, October 27, 2025