Aaron Flanagan
Team Lead, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center
2022
Aaron Flanagan is a team lead in the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center where he oversees research of the white power movement across several ideologies including neo-Nazi, racist skinhead, the Ku Klux Klan, Holocaust denial, hate music and others. Flanagan also works closely with SPLCs federal and state-level policy teams on issues related to political violence, electoral extremism and election protections in addition to prevention and resilience building against far-right extremism. He has provided analysis and investigative support to news outlets—including the BBC, New York Times, ProPublica, Der Spiegel, ARD, MSNBC, ABC News, Rolling Stone, Washington Post, The Guardian and others—and has briefed government agencies in numerous countries. Previously, he has lead teams publishing original reports and conducting community-based research to develop resources for or with advocates leading organizing efforts to counter the nativist, anti-immigrant movement in our country and the international anti-Muslim movement. He has been a part of the broader NGO research community focused on reducing harms attributable to far-right extremism for nearly 20 years.
The effort to eradicate hate requires the active participation of every component of our society, to include governments, the private sector, communities of faith and indeed every aspect of civil society. There is no more urgent task in front of us. The organizers of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit are doing the United States and the world an enormous service by tackling hatred and extremism with a focus on honest dialogue and conversation, genuine learning and practical solutions. This will not happen overnight, but the Pittsburgh community’s leadership in this effort is genuinely inspiring and motivating.
