Jonathan Githens-Mazer

Professor Jonathan Githens-Mazer is an academic based in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies and the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter.

He was awarded his PhD from the London School of Economics in 2005, and graduated from Swarthmore College in 1997.

Githens-Mazer’s research examines nationalism, radicalisation, terrorism, counter-terrorism and he has published on these issues in Ireland, North Africa, and the United Kingdom. He has received funding for this research from the British Academy, Economic and Social Research Council and the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

Part of his current research portfolio incudes looking at how to apply technological innovation (such as Big Data) to buttress and improve qualitative research and ethnography (including Influence and Information Operations), and to develop methods and techniques which use qualitative and ethnographic research to calibrate analysis of very large data sets. In 2013, he (as co-author) won the IEEE ASE SocialCom 2013 Best Paper award for this work.

His current book projects include an examination the appeal of Salafi Islam amongst young gang members in South London and another that looks at the symbolic role of Islam for nationalism in North Africa.

Githens-Mazer has worked extensively with Muslim communities in the UK and beyond, he acts as a consultant to the UK Government, MoD, DoD, NATO and the UN, and he is an Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) civilian affiliate.

He is a past president of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN), is currently on the Editorial Board of OpenSecurity, and he has published extensively and appeared on radio and television on a number of different sites and stations including The Guardian, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and Channel 4.