Dr. Brian Hughes
Founding Co-Director, (PERIL)
2022, 2024
Brian Hughes is a Research Assistant Professor in the program of Justice, Law, and Criminology at American University in Washington, DC. He is the founding co-director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), where he develops studies and interventions to reduce the impact of disinformation and the risk of radicalization to extremism. His academic work explores the impact of communication technology on political and religious extremism, terrorism, and fringe culture. This work seeks to identify the social and emotional connections between extremist ideologies, cultures, times, and places. His writing has appeared in the CTC Sentinel at West Point, the International Journal of Communication, Lawfare, and New Media & Society.
This cannot be thought of as a conference or a summit. The stakes are simply too high and the data/conversation and methods to drive action more valuable/motivating than any gathering I have attended. I took more than 100 pages of notes and have shared them with my CBS News leadership team, anchors, producers, and correspondents. Nothing about this gathering was easy. The agony around this topic is real. But no one curious about it could ask for a more devoted, rational, or unflinching look into this dark but decipherable world.
