During my academic career, I was an internationally-recognized expert on white supremacy and white supremacist violence. I grounded my work in attention to power relations, structural injustice, and narrative choices as I sought to answer questions of how meaning is made surrounding the category of “terrorism.” I had the privilege of sharing my research with audiences in eight countries, collaborating with organizations as diverse as Access Now and the Muslim Justice League, and designing workshops on interpretive research methodologies for graduate students at several institutions.
On this page, you will find a selection of my academic publications, presentations/interviews, and public commentary. As I make no money from “clicks” on these pieces of work, please feel free to use and circulate the free PDFs provided.
Academic Publications
“‘A name was banned. Nothing more!’: Identity, Democracy, and Banning White Supremacists in Germany”
European Journal of International Relations, forthcoming (2024). Peer-reviewed contribution.
“Critical Reflexivity and Research on State Responses to the Far Right” (PDF)
In The Ethics of Researching the Far Right, edited by Joan Braune, Aurelien Mondon, Meghan Tinsley, and Antonia Vaughan (2024), 335–45. Manchester University Press. Editor-selected contribution.
“Transmisogyny, Colonialism, and Online Anti-Trans Activism Following Violent Extremist Attacks in the US and EU” (with Anne Craanen and Charley Gleeson) (PDF)
Global Network on Extremism and Technology (2024). One of six projects selected for publication by GNET in the 2023–24 cycle. Co-authored with Anne Craanen at Swansea University and Charley Gleeson at ExTrac.
“Whiteness as Expertise in Studies of the Far Right” (PDF)
Critical Studies on Terrorism, Online First (2024). Peer-reviewed contribution to a special issue on abolition and decoloniality in Critical Terrorism Studies. Originally developed via an invited presentation at the European Workshop on International Studies, Amsterdam, July 2023.
“Racism By Designation: Making Sense of Why Western States Rarely Designate White Supremacists as Terrorists” (with Zoltán Búzás) (PDF)
Security Studies 32 (4): 680–713 (2023). Co-authored with Zoltán Búzás at the University of Notre Dame. Peer-reviewed contribution to a special issue on race and security in international relations. Developed via an invited presentation at the University of Chicago, January 2022.
“Diversity in Proxy War Studies: Politics, Positionality, and Colonial Persistence” (with Layla E. Picard) (PDF)
In The Routledge Handbook of Proxy Wars, edited by Assaf Moghadam, Vladimir Rauta, and Michel Wyss, 100–110 (2023). Editor-invited contribution. Co-authored with Layla E. Picard at the University of Virginia.
“Terror as Justice, Justice as Terror: Counterterrorism and Anti-Black Racism in the United States” (PDF)
Critical Studies on Terrorism 15 (1): 83–101 (2022). Peer-reviewed contribution to a special issue on critical approaches to the far right. Reprinted in CTS and Right-Wing Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Volume II: The Politics of Countering Political Violence, edited by Raquel da Silva and Alice Martini (Routledge, 2024).
“The Idea of Terror: Institutional Reproduction in Government Responses to Political Violence” (PDF)
International Studies Quarterly 64 (3): 499–509 (2020). Peer-reviewed contribution. Winner of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s 2021 Genevieve Gorst Herfurth Award for Outstanding Research in the Social Sciences.
Selected Presentations and Interviews
“Gendered Approaches to Online Violent Extremism.” Invited panel discussion at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology’s 2023 conference, London. May 31, 2023.
“Who Designates Terrorism? The Need for Clarity and Transparency to Moderate Online Terrorist Content.” Online report launch with Tech Against Terrorism, March 23, 2023.
“Dr. Anna Meier on Counter-Terrorism.” Yeah Nah Pasaran!, October 27, 2022.
“Anna Meier and Aaron Winter on the Shawcross Report.” Enemies of the People, May 31, 2022.
“Is Official Terrorist Content Illegal Online? Terrorist Designation and the Online Realm.” Tech Against Terrorism Podcast, April 13, 2022.
“Anna Meier on White Supremacy and the Idea of Terror.” Enemies of the People, February 1, 2022.
Public Commentary
“‘Salad Bar Extremism’ as White Distraction: The (In)coherence of a Category.” GNET, August 24, 2023.
“Who Really Benefits From Banning White Supremacist Groups?” Lawfare, December 18, 2022.
“Research as Resistance: A Target-Centred Approach to Studying Anti-Queer and Trans Violence.” GNET, December 8, 2022.
“Germany’s White Supremacist Problem–And What It Means For the United States.” Lawfare, January 30, 2022.
“What Does a ‘Terrorist’ Designation Mean?” Lawfare, July 19, 2020.
“The U.S. labeled a white supremacist group as ‘terrorists’ for the first time. It’s less significant than you think.” The Monkey Cage, April 30, 2020.
“Identity, Law, and How Political Elites Define Terrorism.” Political Violence at a Glance, October 18, 2019.
“Why do Facebook and Twitter’s anti-extremist guidelines allow right-wingers more freedom than Islamists?” The Monkey Cage, August 1, 2019.
Other Writing for Academic Audiences
“I stopped taking student attendance personally and haven’t looked back.” Times Higher Education, July 17, 2024.
“Code-Switching Higher Ed: The UK and US Systems for Early-Career Scholars.” In The Lived Experiences of Early-Career Researchers, a collaborative publication of the Higher Education Policy Institute and the British Academy, February 29, 2024.
“Academic Jobs in the US and UK.” Framework for Open and and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT), May 30, 2023.
“How to Stop Minimising Mental Illness: Bridging Individual Responsibility and Systemic Transformation.” Higher Education Policy Institute, October 10, 2022.
“Mental Health and the Job Market.” With Adnan Rasool and Annelise Russell. In Strategies for Navigating Grad School and Beyond, a publication of the American Political Science Association, 2022. (PDF)
“Community, Solidarity, and Collective Power: The Role of Graduate Student Organizations and Graduate Worker Unions.” With Samantha Cooney, Patrick Goulding, and Kevin Reuning. In Strategies for Navigating Grad School and Beyond, a publication of the American Political Science Association, 2022. (PDF)
“IR hasn’t made serious progress on LGBTQ+ inclusion. Here’s why.” International Affairs blog, August 11, 2021.
“Want to Improve Equity and Inclusion in Political Science? Address White Supremacy.” Duck of Minerva, January 11, 2021.