Michele Grossman
Research Chair in Diversity and Resilience, Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University
2022
Professor Michele Grossman, the Research Chair in Diversity and Community Resilience at Deakin University’s Burwood campus, is also the Director of the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies, and the Convenor of the AVERT (Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism) research network. The research she leads informs both domestic and international policy-setting on countering terrorism.
“We need to understand how to intervene early and effectively when people are becoming involved in violent extremism, and we also need to understand how to support their disengagement from violent extremism so that they can exit successfully and rejoin their communities,” she says.
“The main questions I explore are what we can learn from the various strategies used by different cultural groups to cope with challenge and adversity; understanding more about the social vulnerabilities that may lead some people to become attracted to violent extremism as a solution to grievances or problems; and how we can build effective government-community partnerships and solutions to tackle the uptake of violent extremism across the spectrum of various social movements and ideologies.”
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.
