Dr Suraj Lakhani

Dr Suraj Lakhani is a Lecturer within the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex. He is also Director of the Sussex Terrorism and Extremism Research Network (STERN). Suraj’s research interests include extremism/terrorism and the internet, extremist subcultures, and counter-terrorism policy (specifically the Prevent Strategy/duty). He has acted as Principal Investigator and led a plethora of funded research, including for the Home Office, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, and Research England. He is also part of international research consortiums undertaking projects for various partners, including the RESOLVE Network.

Suraj completed his doctorate at Cardiff University, empirically investigating processes of radicalisation in the United Kingdom primarily through interviews with former Jihadists. Whilst undertaking his PhD, he was also employed at the Universities’ Police Science Institute. Prior to his doctorate, Suraj worked as Researcher for RUSI (2005-2007), where his work focussed on protecting the UK’s critical national infrastructure, collaborating closely with the Cabinet Office.

Alongside his fellowship at RUSI, Suraj is a Research Fellow at VoxPol, and was previously part of an ‘expert pool’ for the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network Centre of Excellence. Suraj regularly provides expertise on the topics of radicalisation, violent extremism, counter-terrorism and policing to a variety of print, radio and television outlets. These include, for example, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC Radio 4, ITV News, BBC News 24 and The Guardian.