Accelerationism Research Consortium

ARC is a global cross-sector and cross-discipline initiative of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism (ICDE).

The Consortium is made up of researchers, practitioners, and journalists who are dedicated to understanding and mitigating the threat posed by militant accelerationist terrorism.

Staff

  • Matt Kriner is the Executive Director of the Accelerationism Research Consortium (ARC), as well as the Executive Director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism (ICDE). In these capacities Matt specializes in researching and analyzing militant accelerationism, US domestic violent extremism, transnational far-right extremism, extremist exploitation of digital and social media technologies, threat assessment and radicalization. Matt is a consultant for the US Department of State, and regularly briefs US, Canadian, New Zealand, and UK law enforcement and intelligence agencies on emerging terrorist threats and militant accelerationism. Matt’s research has been featured in several academic and media publications, including the CTC Sentinel, Perspectives on Terrorism, RAND Blog, GNET, and Slate.

  • Dr. Amy Cooter is the Deputy Director ICDE and Deputy Director/Research Director of ARC. She focuses on antigovernment extremism and has studied a range of groups who use a nostalgic understanding of the past to justify their actions. Her primary expertise is on U.S. domestic militias, and groups of armed individuals who see it as their civic duty to uphold the Constitution the way they believe it should be interpreted.

  • Erica Barbarossa is the Associate Director of ARC and ICDE. Her interests include accelerationism, right-wing terrorism, and Russian area studies. Before her involvement with the Middlebury Institute, Erica served as a William J. Fulbright English Teaching Assistant finalist in the Russian Federation. Erica has master’s degrees in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies from the Middlebury Institute and in International Relations – Global Security, Nuclear Politics, and WMD Proliferation from Moscow State Institute of International Studies (MGIMO). She received her bachelor’s in Russian and Slavic Studies from New York University.

Board of Advisors

  • Amarnath Amarasingam is an Assistant Professor in the School of Religion, and is cross-appointed to the Department of Political Studies, at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. He is also a Senior Fellow with the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. His research interests are in terrorism, radicalization and extremism, online communities, diaspora politics, post-war reconstruction, and the sociology of religion. He is the author of Pain, Pride, and Politics: Sri Lankan Tamil Activism in Canada (2015), and co-editor of Stress tested: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Canadian National Security (2021) and Sri Lanka: The Struggle for Peace in the Aftermath of War (2016). He has also published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, has presented papers at over 100 national and international conferences, and has written for The New York Times, The Monkey Case, The Washington Post, CNN, Politico, The Atlantic, and Foreign Affairs. He has been interviewed on CNN, PBS Newshour, CBC, BBC, and a variety of other media outlets.

  • Ashton Kingdon is a lecturer in criminology as the University of Southampton and head of the Technology Research Unit at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right. Her research is interdisciplinary combining criminology, history, and computer science to explore the ways in which technology and imagery act as accelerators of radicalisation. Additionally her research analyses the relationship existing between terrorism and climate change.

  • Michael Loadenthal, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy, within the School of Public and International Affairs, at the University of Cincinnati. He concurrently serves as the founder and Executive Director of the Prosecution Project which tracks felony cases of political violence occurring in the United States. Dr. Loadenthal has been investigating the far-right for the past twenty years, and often trains researchers, journalists, and high risk activists in the areas of digital-operational security, methods of surveillance and infiltration, open source intelligence techniques, threat modeling, and risk analysis. Dr. Loadenthal is a noted subject matter expert and author reporting on social movements, and his work is frequently featured by media outlets including The Guardian, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, The Intercept, and USA Today.

  • Graham Macklin is Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo, Norway. He has published extensively on far-right politics, transnational networks, and violence and terrorism in the United Kingdom and the United States in both the inter-war and post-war periods. He co-edits the academic journal "Patterns of Prejudice" and the book series Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right.

  • Vidhya Ramalingam is Founder of Moonshot, an organization that uses technology to disrupt and counter online harms globally. She directs overall strategy and oversees campaigns, software development, and digital projects in over 25 countries. Vidhya is recognized internationally for her role leading policy responses to white supremacist extremism and terrorism. Following the 2011 attacks in Norway, she led the European Union’s first inter-governmental initiative on white nationalist terrorism and extremism, initiated by the Governments of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands, and launched by the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on the global threat posed by white nationalist terrorism. Vidhya also serves on the Board of Life After Hate.

  • Dr. Erin Saltman is the Director of Programming at the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). She was formerly Facebook’s Head of Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organizations Policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; working with multi-sector stakeholders and building out CVE programs for Facebook in partnership with international NGOs. Dr Saltman’s background and expertise includes both far-right and Islamist extremist processes of radicalization within a range of regional and socio-political contexts. Her research and publications have focused on the evolving nature of online extremism and terrorism, gender dynamics within violent extremist organizations and youth radicalization. Previous roles include Senior Research and Programs positions at Quilliam Foundation and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD Global), where she remains a Research Fellow.

Research Fellows

  • Marc-André Argentino is a Research Fellow at ICSR and PhD candidate in the Individualized Program at Concordia University and he is being supervised by professors in the department of Theological Studies, the Centre for Engineering in Society and the Institute of Information System Engineering. His research uses digital ethnography and data science to examines how extremist groups leverage technology to create propaganda, recruit members to ideological causes, inspire acts of violence and impact democratic institutions.

  • Logan Macnair (PhD) is a research associate at Simon Fraser University’s International CyberCrime Research Centre whose research is primarily focused around the online media, communication strategies, and propaganda campaigns of terrorist and extremist organizations. His research has examined the online media of extremist organizations from a diversity of ideologies including Islamist extremism, right-wing extremism, and gender-based extremism. During his time as a PhD student, Logan has also been involved in the creation and implementation of a local counter-extremist initiative and has worked as a contract researcher for a private security company.

  • Meili Criezis is a Graduate Fellow at the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab (PERIL), a PhD student at American University in Justice, Law, and Criminology, and a Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) Contributor. Her research focuses on Islamic State propaganda, extremists’ presence on encrypted apps, and more generally, violent extremism across ideologies.

  • Joshua Farrell-Molloy is a Research Fellow with the Accelerationism Research Consortium. He holds an MA in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies from the University of Glasgow and his research focuses on the far-right, online extremist subcultures and foreign fighters. Before becoming a fellow at ARC, Joshua was an intern with the Institute of Strategic Dialogue and the International Centre for Counter Terrorism. He was also a Research Assistant with American University, Washington and Charles University, Prague.

  • Julia Kupper is a Forensic & Tactical Linguist and Independent Researcher based in Los Angeles, California. As a consultant, she collaborates with law enforcement agencies and threat assessment teams, supporting inquiries by scientifically analyzing language evidence in a criminal context or as raw intelligence in a threat mitigation environment. As a scholar, she studies targeted violence and terrorism communications to enhance the mitigation of different types of violent threats. Her work has been featured in Perspectives on Terrorism, the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management and the FBI’s online magazine Law Enforcement Bulletin.

  • Samantha Olson is an M.A. Candidate in Security Studies at Georgetown University, concentrating in Terrorism and Substate Violence. Her research explores the in-group incentives of neo-fascist ideologies, drawing on primary source material, interviews, and interdisciplinary methods to craft a more fulsome understanding of the appeal of extremist narratives to movement insiders. She holds a B.A. in Honours History with distinction from the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

  • Beth Daviess is a researcher specializing in extremism and alternative pathways to radicalization. With a background in law, she conducts legal and policy analysis on issues related to targeted violence, online harms, and the legal system. Her research has contributed to policy recommendations, academic publications, and public reports on topics ranging from violence-inducing conspiracism to threats against public officials.