Arie Perliger
@aperliger.bsky.social
Political violence I far-right extremism l security policy l extremist ideological misogyny I social networks l Editor in Chief - Democracy and Security. UMASS Lowell School of Criminology and Justice Studies, CTSS, ICCT
Three panels at APSA this week, all with my UMass Lowell students, all digging into how gender drives political backlash and violence. Reconstruction after conflict (Thu 12pm). Tradwives in Turkey and the US (Fri 8am). Disinformation targeting female candidates (Fri 12pm). Come by.
Heidi Beirich is a longtime colleague. Her indictment and the SPLC's put a question in front of extremism researchers that we have avoided for decades. When is it legitimate to cultivate, and pay, insider sources in violent movements? My piece for The Conversation theconversation.com/indictments-...
Indictments against a top extremism researcher and the SPLC force a reckoning on research ethics – an extremism scholar reflects on the field’s challenges
Indictments of a longtime extremism researcher and her former organization raise a crucial question for researchers in the field: What are the ethical limits on research about often-dangerous groups?
theconversation.com
1/ The indictment of Heidi Beirich this week, following the charges against the SPLC, has produced strong reactions among those of us who study extremism. Most fall into one of two camps. Obvious political persecution, or overdue accountability. I would argue both reactions fail the same test.
The "prevention industry" has a blind spot about Antisemitism. 70% of religion-motivated hate crimes in Canada and 69% in the US targeted 1%-2% of the population (Jews). Treating "hate" as an undifferentiated category cannot account for why one small minority is over-targeted.
This should not surprise anyone. The most insidious form of contemporary Antisemitism in the US is within the professional/academic sectors. This is just an extension of the marginalization of Jewish and Israeli professionals and researchers in various domains. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/02/o...
Therapy should be a safe place for everyone, including Zionists - The Boston Globe
Mental health professionals and patients have report uptick in anti-Israel activism spilling over into medical settings.
bostonglobe.com
For many years, I sat where tenure and promotion decisions actually get made. What I saw convinced me that the academy's central quality-control mechanism is not doing the job we claim it does. In a new blog post, I decipher why. medium.com/p/inside-the...
Inside the Black Box: What Many Years on Personnel Committees Taught Me About How the Academy…
In 1954, at the height of the McCarthy era, the sociologist Samuel Stouffer surveyed American social scientists and found that 9 percent…
medium.com
When a death penalty law exempts your own citizens from its logic, it's not criminal justice — it's a political statement about who belongs. New piece in @ConversationUS 👇 theconversation.com/israels-deat...
Israel’s death penalty law has little to do with criminal justice and everything to do with ethno-nationalism
The vote to have death by hanging as the default for Palestinians guilty of killing Israelis represents the further entrenchment of a two-tier legal system.
theconversation.com
This is an email I submitted to my Dean and my entire college. Today I was informed that they have decided to continue with the event. This is what lack of leadership and integrity looks like. UMass Lowell is willing to promote and give awards to those who embrace hate and ideological violence.
Nothing like a little geopolitical chaos abroad to inspire old-fashioned hate at home. I explore how Middle East escalations have become a turbocharger for domestic antisemitism — from all sides of the political spectrum. Read it before your algorithm buries it. theconversation.com/how-hatred-o...
How hatred of Jews became a common ground for Islamic terrorists and left-wing extremists, fueling domestic terrorism
Geopolitical violence abroad translates into homegrown threats in the US and Canada. Recent antisemitic attacks show how the Jewish community is a target of those threats.
theconversation.com
My latest op-ed on the growing involvement of Israeli authorities in facilitating settler violence in the West Bank, and the implications for the Gaza ceasefire. theconversation.com/west-bank-vi...
West Bank violence is soaring, fueled by a capitulation of Israeli institutions to settlers’ interests
Reluctance to address settler violence is the outcome of deep social, political and cultural changes, a scholar of Israeli extremist groups argues.
theconversation.com
Why Israel’s state institutions have become increasingly aligned with — and at times directly complicit in — violent settler actions against Palestinians. theconversation.com/west-bank-vi... by @aperliger.bsky.social via @theconversation.com #palestine
West Bank violence is soaring, fueled by a capitulation of Israeli institutions to settlers’ interests
Reluctance to address settler violence is the outcome of deep social, political and cultural changes, a scholar of Israeli extremist groups argues.
theconversation.com
I was happy to contribute to this piece at CBS Boston about the facilitators of political assassinations. www.cbsnews.com/amp/boston/n...
22-year-old man charged with threatening to kill New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte
A 22-year-old man is in custody after police say he threatened to kill New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
cbsnews.com
Excited to share my new piece on The Conversation, co-authored with the talented Catherine Jarry theconversation.com/sourdough-an...
Sourdough and submission in the name of God: How tradwife content fuses femininity with anti-feminist ideas
Tradwives influencers’ throw-back aesthetics mask a divisive ideology about women’s roles, two scholars of extremism explain.
theconversation.com
I was happy to contribute to the following piece on conspiracy theories in Wired Magazine - www.wired.com/story/22-cel...
One Vigilante, 22 Cell Tower Fires, and a World of Conspiracies
Inside the mind of the most prolific anti-5G arsonist in the world—and the incoherent, very online political violence of our era.
wired.com
I was happy to contribute to this AP piece on political assassinations apnews.com/article/char...
Blame game after acts of political violence can lead to further attacks, experts warn
From the moment conservative icon Charlie Kirk was felled by an assassin’s bullet, partisans have fought over who’s to blame for his death.
apnews.com
My interview with DW TV on the causes and implications of Kirk's assassination... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElsQ...
How divisive US political actors are weaponizing Charlie Kirk's assassination | DW News
YouTube video by DW News
youtube.com
I was happy to contribute to this piece on VOX about the implications of Kirk's assassination. www.vox.com/culture/4618...
A political violence scholar explains what the furor over Charlie Kirk’s killing is missing
What studying hundreds of political assassinations has revealed.
vox.com
My interview with "The Conversation" on the implications and consequences of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. theconversation.com/this-will-no...
‘This will not end here’: A scholar explains why Charlie Kirk’s killing could embolden political violence
Kirk’s killing reflects a broader political impasse in the US, where a significant percentage of the population supports political violence of some form.
theconversation.com
Really great work by my friend @aperliger.bsky.social on settler violence in the West Bank — "fueled by a confluence of ideological fervor, opportunism and far-right Israelis’ political vision for the region." @us.theconversation.com theconversation.com/the-quiet-wa...
The quiet war: What’s fueling Israel’s surge of settler violence – and the lack of state response
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
theconversation.com
My new op-ed on the current escalation in the West Bank and the facilitators of the settlers' militancy. theconversation.com/the-quiet-wa...
The quiet war: What’s fueling Israel’s surge of settler violence – and the lack of state response
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
theconversation.com
My thoughts about the contemporary state of the American far-right: www.thesanfranciscoexperiencepodcast.com/american-zea...
American Zealots. Inside Domestic Right Wing Terrorism. Speaking with author Arie Perliger.
Tree of Life Synagogue Massacre in Pittsburgh
thesanfranciscoexperiencepodcast.com
At Black Colleges, a Stubborn Gender Enrollment Gap Keeps Growing www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/u...
At Black Colleges, a Stubborn Gender Enrollment Gap Keeps Growing
Only 19 percent of students at Howard University are Black men, whose enrollment levels at four-year colleges have plummeted across the board.
nytimes.com
Colleges Have to Be Much More Honest With Themselves "Many of those who seek the protection of academic freedom today once denounced it as a tool of oppression." speakers.https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/opinion/college-universities-trump-policies.html?smid=bs-share
Opinion | Colleges Have to Be Much More Honest With Themselves
To rebuild trust and resist interference, universities must look within.
nytimes.com
Harvard just released a report from its graduating seniors. Only a third of them felt fully comfortable speaking about their honest views in class. This is what happens when faculty become political activists who exploit their classes for pure political indoctrination.
1/ I do not think I was ever so out of step with most of my academic colleagues. So here are some general thoughts that will explain why I think that so many of the reactions to (what many see as) the current collapse of the academic system are so full of hypocrisy. 🧵
Well... let's try and see if it is indeed an upgrade over X...
