Elizabeth Pearson, Ph.D.
elizabethgpearson@gmail.com
Senior Lecturer
Royal Holloway, University of London
Year of PhD: 2019
Country: United Kingdom (England)
About Me:
Dr Elizabeth Pearson is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Programme Lead for the MSc Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies course, taught from our central London campus. Her research interests are in gender, extremism, misogyny and counter-extremism. Elizabeth's most recent book, Extreme Britain: Gender, Masculinity and Radicalisation was published with Hurst and Oxford University Press (US) in December 2023. The book explores misogyny and masculinities in the radical right and Anjem Choudary's al-Muhajiroun, and is based on interviews with leaders including Choudary, Tommy Robinson, Jayda Fransen and Anne Marie Waters. It evidences how extremism and radicalisation are fundamentally gendered. The book started life as an ESRC-funded PhD at King's College London. Elizabeth is also an author of the book Countering Violent Extremism: Making Gender Matter, with Emily Winterbotham of the Royal United Services Institute and Professor Katherine Brown. CVE: Making Gender Matter is based on research in 2015-6 looking at the gender dynamics of extremism and countering violent extremism, and in five countries (Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK). Elizabeth has worked to study extremism online and off, and in 2015 conducted research on Islamic State supporters on Twitter during a Fellowship with VOX-Pol, the European Union Network of Excellence for the study of extremism online. Elizabeth has also written on gender and the West African jihadist group Boko Haram, and worked with the European Union Technial Assistance to Nigeria's Evolving Security Challenges (EUTANS). Elizabeth is also a member of VOX-Pol and works on VOX-Pol's REASSURE project, aimed at producing safety guidelines for researchers of online terrorism and extremism. Prior to academia, Elizabeth worked as a radio journalist, mainly for the BBC.
Research Interests
Political Violence
Gender and Politics
Terrorism
Boko Haram
ISIS Women
Online Radicalisation
Jihadists
Radicalization And Extremism
Countering Violent Extremism
Misogyny
Masculinity
Countries of Interest
United Kingdom
Nigeria
My Research:
Dr Elizabeth Pearson is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Programme Lead for the MSc Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies course, taught from our central London campus. Her research interests are in gender, extremism and counter-extremism. Elizabeth's most recent book, Extreme Britain: Gender, Masculinity and Radicalisation was published with Hurst and Oxford University Press (US) in December 2023. The book explores misogyny and masculinities in the radical right and Anjem Choudary's al-Muhajiroun, and is based on interviews with leaders including Choudary, Tommy Robinson, Jayda Fransen and Anne Marie Waters. It argues extremism and radicalisation are fundamentally gendered. The book started life as an ESRC-funded PhD at King's College London. She is also author of the book Countering Violent Extremism: Making Gender Matter, co-authored with Emily Winterbotham of the Royal United Services Institute and Dr Katherine Brown. CVE: Making Gender Matter is based on research in 2015-6 looking at the gender dynamics of extremism and countering violent extremism, and in five countries (Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK). Elizabeth has worked to study extremism online and off, and in 2015 conducted research on Islamic State supporters on Twitter during a Fellowship with VOX-Pol, the European Union Network of Excellence for the study of extremism online. Elizabeth has also written on gender and the West African jihadist group Boko Haram, and worked with the European Union Technial Assistance to Nigeria's Evolving Security Challenges (EUTANS). Elizabeth is also a member of VOX-Pol and works on VOX-Pol's REASSURE project, aimed at producing safety guidelines for researchers of online terrorism and extremism. Prior to academia, Elizabeth worked as a radio journalist, mainly for the BBC.
Publications:
Journal Articles:
It is more than 20 years since Marysia Zalewski and feminist scholars posed ‘the man question’ in International Relations, repositioning the gaze from female subjectivities to a problematization of the subjecthood of man. The field of masculinity studies has developed this initial question to a deep interrogation of the relationship between maleness and violence. Yet public and policy discourse often reduce the complexity of masculinities within extremism to issues of crisis and toxicity. Governments have prioritized the prevention of extremism, particularly violent Islamism, and in so doing have produced as ‘risk’ particular racialized and marginalized men. This article asks, what are the effects of the toxic masculinity discourse in understanding the British radical right? It argues that current understandings of extremism neglect the central aim of Zalewski's ‘man’ question to destabilize the field and deconstruct patriarchy. They instead position Islamophobia—which is institutionalized in state discourse—as the responsibility of particular ‘extreme’ and ‘toxic’ groups. In particular, the article outlines two ways in which ‘toxic masculinity’ is an inadequate concept to describe activism in the anti-Islam(ist) movement the English Defence League (EDL). First, the term ‘toxic masculinity’ occludes the continuities of EDL masculinities with wider patriarchal norms; second, it neglects the role of women as significant actors in the movement. Using an ethnographic and empathetic approach to this case-study, the article explores how Zalewski's theoretical position offers a route to analysis of the ways in which masculinities and patriarchy entwine in producing power and violence; and to a discussion of masculinities that need not equate manhood with threat.
In this article, Elizabeth Pearson and Emily Winterbotham explore the role of gender in radicalisation to Daesh (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS). They discuss possible factors in female radicalisation, and how radicalisation differs between men and women. They find that the gender of the recruit affects the enabling factors, mechanisms and locations relating to radicalisation. The article challenges assertions that the recruitment of young men and women to Daesh follows identical patterns, as well as the narrative of women as innately peaceful, or as actors coerced into joining Daesh, revealing the importance of female empowerment in the group’s appeal.
Using a dataset of more than 80 accounts during 2015, this article explores the gendered ways in which self-proclaiming Twitter Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) supporters construct community around “suspension.” The article argues that suspension is an integral event in the online lives of ISIS supporters, which is reproduced in online identities. The highly gendered roles of ISIS males and females frame responses to suspension, enforcing norms that benefit the group: the shaming of men into battle and policing of women into modesty. Both male and female members of “Wilayat Twitter” regard online as a frontline, with suspension an act of war against the “baqiya family.” The findings have implications for broader repressive measures against ISIS online.
In 2015, UN Security Council Resolution 2242 advocated deliberate outreach to women when devising counterterrorism projects. This is based on assumptions of the need to empower women, as well as their particular ability to exert benign influence over young people and stop radicalisation to violence. The approach has been particularly prevalent in Western Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) projects aimed at preventing homegrown Islamist radicalisation. On the basis of fieldwork with Muslim communities in five countries – Canada, the UK, Germany, France and The Netherlands – Emily Winterbotham and Elizabeth Pearson challenge the underlying assumptions of such an approach, and suggest aspects of women’s CVE projects may exacerbate existing community tensions, and do not reflect the changing norms of Muslim communities in the West. Alternative modes of engagement could improve the efficacy of CVE and enable it to better appeal to those it is intended to help.
As dozens of British women and girls travel to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, there are increasing concerns over female radicalization online. These fears are heightened by the case of Roshonara Choudhry, the first and only British woman convicted of a violent Islamist attack. The university student in 2010 stabbed her Member of Parliament, after watching YouTube videos of the radical cleric Anwar Al Awlaki. Current radicalization theories portray Choudhry as a “pure lone wolf,” a victim of Internet indoctrination, without agency. This article explores how gender factors in her radicalization, to present an alternative to existing theoretical explanations. An engagement with gender reveals its role in Choudhry's radicalization, first, in precluding her from a real-world engagement with Islamism on her terms, pushing her to the Internet; then in increasing her susceptibility to online extremist messages; finally, in fomenting an eventually intolerable dissonance between her online and multiple “real” gendered identities, resulting in violence. The article emphasizes the transgressive nature of this act of female violence in Salafi-Jihadi ideology; also, the importance of this gendered ideology as the foundation of ISIS recruitment online. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the operation of gender in the Jihad's production of violence, and roles for men and women alike.
This article addresses an under-researched aspect of Boko Haram’s activities: gender-based violence (GBV) and its targeting of women. It argues that 2013 marked a significant evolution in Boko Haram’s tactics, with a series of kidnappings, in which one of the main features was the instrumental use of women. is was in response to corresponding tactics by the Nigerian security forces. Additionally the analysis provides evidence of a shift by Boko Haram to include women in its operations, in response to increased pressure on male operatives. It also considers the gendered rationale for instrumentalizing women within the framework of Boko Haram’s ideology and culture, arguing for a greater appreciation of how gender factors in the group’s violence
Books Written:
Misogyny and ‘toxic masculinity’ are increasingly implicated in radicalisation. From the men’s incel (‘involuntary celibate’) movement online, to jihadist groups like Islamic State, to radical right ‘Free Speech’ protests —radicalisation spans ideologies. Though an often-used term, the process of radicalisation is not well understood, and the role of gender and masculinities has often been ignored. This book uses primary research among two of Britain’s key extremist movements: the banned Islamist group al-Muhajiroun, and those networked to it; and the anti-Islam radical right, including the English Defence League and Britain First, to reveal radicalisation as a masculinity project. Through interviews with leaders including Anjem Choudary, Jayda Fransen and Tommy Robinson, as well as their followers, Extreme Britain explores the emergence of extreme misogyny and masculinities. Pearson situates extreme identities in wider social norms, showing how masculinities are mobilised into action. The book cautions against oversimplifying extreme masculinity as ‘toxic’. It demonstrates how both men and women ‘do’ extreme masculinities and the costs and benefits to them both of activism. Understanding the men and women involved in extreme movements will better equip us to counter them. This fascinating study offers invaluable insight into some of their lives and motivations. Reviews ‘In this fascinating study, Pearson… presents nearly a decade’s worth of research into Britain’s radical right.’ — Security Women ‘A page-turning, exemplary recent history of the roles of masculinities in different extremisms found in Britain. Elegantly blending engaging first-hand accounts with accessible conceptualisations, this sets a standard with which all future work on gender and extremism will be compared.’ — Paul Gill, Professor of Security and Crime Science, University College London, and author of Lone-Actor Terrorists ‘Extreme Britain combines powerful research, smart analysis and timely intervention to show that radicalisation is always and necessarily gendered—producing a must-read text for anyone who is interested in understanding contemporary extremism, in Britain and globally.’ — Laura Sjoberg, British Academy Global Professor of Politics and International Relations, Royal Holloway University of London, and author of Gendering Global Conflict ‘The first in-depth comparative account of how masculinities shape participation in extremist movements in the UK. Empirically rich, compelling and beautifully written, it should be widely read.’ — David Duriesmith, Lecturer in Gender and Politics, University of Sheffield, and author of Masculinity and New War ‘A compelling and very readable study of how gender informs and shapes extremism in contemporary Britain. With its in-depth focus on the specific local, national and international discourses of extremism, it fills an important gap in the literature. A necessary and extremely well-executed book.’ — Leonie B. Jackson, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Northumbria University, and author of The Monstrous and the Vulnerable: Framing British Jihadi Brides ‘In Extreme Britain, Pearson fills the long-lamented gap in terrorism studies on masculinities, misogyny and extremism. This is an exceptionally researched, sensitively written candid examination of the relationship between the far-right in its various forms, masculinities and extremist engagement.’ — Caron Gentry, Faculty Pro Vice-Chancellor for Arts, Design and Social Sciences, Northumbria University, and author of Disordered Violence: How Gender, Race and Heteronormativity Structure Terrorism
This book presents original research on gender and the power dynamics of diverse forms of violent extremism, and efforts to counter them. Based on focus group and interview research with some 250 participants in Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and UK in 2015 and 2016, it offers insights from communities affected by radicalisation and violent extremism. It introduces the concept of gendered radicalisation, exploring how the multiple factors of paths to violent extremist groups – social, local, individual and global – can differ for both men and women, and why. The book also offers a critical analysis of gender and terrorism; a summary of current policy in the five countries of study and some of the core gendered assumptions prevalent in interventions to prevent violent extremism; a comparison of Jihadi extremism and the far right; and a chapter of recommendations. This book is of use to academics, policy-makers, students and the general reader interested in better understanding a phenomenon defining our times.