Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, American University 

Cornell University Lecture, hosted by the Department of Sociology

Reception following talk at the AD White House

co-sponsors: German Studies, Center on Democracy, Center for the Study of Inequality, Cornell Population Center, Brooks School of Public Policy, Feminist Gender & Sexuality Studies

Description:

Dr. Miller-Idriss’s 2025 book, Man Up, challenges the persistent underemphasis on gender in discussions about violent extremism and the pathways that lead to it. The book examines five case studies of misogynistic strategies used to police modern patriarchies: containment, punishment, exploitation, erasure, and enabling. Miller-Idriss shows that misogyny and gender-based violence in intimate and everyday settings are among the most reliable and unequivocal predictors of support for and precursors to mass, public, and targeted violence. She argues that recent increases in violent extremism are partially explained as violent retrenchment and reassertion of traditional patriarchy. And finally, Man Up contends that all forms of hate and hate-fueled violence—including racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and Islamophobic ideas and attacks—are linked by the connective tissue of misogyny and gender-based bigotry.

Bio:

Dr. Miller-Idriss’s work represents a bold and incisive analysis of the link between misogyny and far-right extremism throughout the Western Hemisphere. Dr. Miller-Idriss is a sociologist and scholar of extremism and radicalization who graduated from Cornell in 1994 with a BA in Sociology and German Area Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 2003. She now holds an appointment as Professor in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Education at American University and is the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL).

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a leading scholar in the study of extremism, radicalization, and polarization, whose work bridges academic research and practical interventions. Her research informs policy, media, and community-based strategies to address pressing global challenges and her work offers critical insights into understanding and preventing the dynamics of hate and violence.

In addition to her academic work, Miller-Idriss writes frequently for mainstream audiences, both as an opinion columnist for MSNBC and in additional essays, with recent by-lines in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN, The Hill, Politico, The Guardian, Le Monde, Salon, and more. She appears regularly in the media as an expert source and political commentator, including regular appearances on Fareed Zakaria GPS as well as other CNN news programs, PBS News Hour, NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, NBC's Evening News with Lester Holt, C-SPAN's Washington Journal, NBC's The Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, CBS' Morning Show, and in global news outlets in over a dozen countries, including BBC News, Deutsche Welle, France 24, al Jazeera and more.