Professor Paul Thomas

Paul Thomas is Professor of Youth and Policy and Associate Dean (Research) in the School of Education and Professional Development at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

Paul’s research focusses on how state policies such as the Prevent counterterrorism strategy have been understood and enacted by ground-level practitioners, particularly educationalists such as youth workers and teachers, and experienced by communities. It has led to books such as, Responding to the Threat of Violent Extremism: Failing to Prevent (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Race, Space and Place in Northern England: The (M62) Corridor of Uncertainty (with Shamim Miah and Pete Sanderson, Palgrave 2020), as well as articles in many leading journals.

Paul’s ‘Community Reporting Thresholds’ research with colleagues in the UK, USA and Canada has focussed on barriers to community members reporting concerns about an ‘intimate’ (a close friend, partner or family member) becoming involved in violent extremism. Paul is a qualified Youth and Community Worker, and previously worked for the Commission for Racial Equality in the North of England.