Brenna Helm's Portfolio
 

 
 

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE | NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY, & EDUCATION CENTER (NCITE) | she/her/hers

Brenna
Helm, ABD

 


About me

Doctoral Candidate - Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice

Research Associate - National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, & Education (NCITE) Center, University of Nebraska - Omaha

I am currently a Predoctoral Research Associate at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, & Education (NCITE) Center, and a doctoral candidate (ABD) at Michigan State University's School of Criminal Justice. I am also a fellow at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacy and RSAC Security Scholar.

My research focuses on extremism, extremists’ use of the Internet, online subcultures, and bias-motivated crimes. I use subcultural approaches to better understand individual exposure to extremist content, engagement pathways, and user engagement within online extremist spaces. As a researcher, I have an additional interest in the role of gender within extremist movements.

Much of my work to date has examined affordances of the Internet and the role it plays in radicalization and subcultural engagement. My overarching goal is to conduct research that contributes to our collective understanding of Internet facilitation of deviant and criminal behaviors, as well as how our knowledge of individual and group behavior within online extremist spaces can support the development of intervention and disengagement initiatives. I aim to cultivate a deeper understanding of how these mechanisms manifest online and across digital modalities, as well as how this understanding can be leveraged to prevent offline harms and extremist violence.

Currently, I am researching how gender dynamics influence individual engagement in extremist movements, the trajectories of user engagement within online extremist spaces, reintegration practices, and the formation of ‘mixed, unclear, and unstable’ (MUU) ideologies online. My recent work has appeared in the Journal of Crime and JusticeDeviant BehaviorSociological Focus, Crime & Delinquency, and in Critical Criminology; as well as the VOX-Pol Network of Excellence Blog and Global Network on Extremism & Terrorism (GNET) Insights.

 

Research Interests

Digital criminology

Extremism

Extremists’ use of online spaces

Online subcultures

Hate and bias crimes

Gender/Sexuality

 

Fellowships

Fellow at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism (IRMS)

RSAC Security Scholar (2023)