AVERT Newsletter

Convenor’s Message

What a year it’s been!

2021 has been a year like no other. As AVERT members transited the second year of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we contended with multiple lockdowns, home-schooling, the emergence of Delta and then Omicron, civil unrest around vaccines, lockdowns and other public health measures, the finer arts of managing the mute and video settings on Zoom, and both the hopes and challenges created by successful vaccines and their uneven global distribution. 

Despite these challenges, 2021 has been a bumper year for AVERT as a research network. We offered a range of fascinating online webinars.  We delivered two in-depth Rapid Evidence Assessments as part of our agreement with the Department of Home Affairs, on counter- and alternative narratives and on terrorist recidivism. We also convened two   amazing online conferences – the Violent Extremism Risk Assessment Conference in July and the AVERT Research Symposium, which explored violent extremism at the crossroads 20 years after 9/11, in November.

As our post-conference feedback has confirmed, each of these events was a resounding success, with impressive registration numbers of 200+ participants from around the world for each, stimulating and cutting-edge presentations, and a series of outstanding conference recordings on the AVERT website that has enabled even those who could not join us at the time to benefit from the many wonderful keynote and other presentations that were offered. 

Both conferences were made possible through funding from the Department of Home Affairs, and we are very grateful for their continued support of specific activities that recognise the key role of AVERT as a transparent and independent network of engaged and committed researchers in terrorism and violent extremism studies. Of course, we are also incredibly grateful for the continued financial and in-kind support of Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute and Faculty of Arts and Education, who make possible AVERT’s day to day operations.

Our expertise has also had public impacts this year. We have seen a wide range of AVERT member publications, conference presentations and new research projects appear throughout 2021, all of which attest to the continued impact of our individual and collective work. 

Finally, we’ve welcomed a number of new research members to AVERT, and our new website will be ready to go live in the first quarter of 2022as we continue to expand our network.

We are looking forward to reconnecting with you after the Australian summer break, but for now, AVERT will be taking a few weeks off to rest and recharge after a really busy but very rewarding year. We’ll be back on 1 February 2022, and we wish you – wherever you are – all the best for the festive season and for a safe, healthy and thriving new year!

With best wishes from the whole AVERT team,
Michele Grossman, AVERT Convenor

The 2021 AVERT Research Symposium was an incredible success - featuring presentations from across the globe on persistence, change and dynamism in the violent extremism landscape 20 years after 9/11.  

Keynote speeches from Professor Martha Crenshaw and Professor Maura Conway were a particular highlight; as was the range and depth of research expertise and practitioner experience on show at this year's online conference.  

To access the recordings of the full conference proceedings, click here.

MICHELE GROSSMAN

New appointments

Appointed in November 2021 as one of two Associate Editors of Terrorism and Political Violence and in August 2021 to the Editorial Board of Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism (both Taylor & Francis).

Publications

Michele Grossman, ‘How has COVID-19 changed the violent extremist landscape?’, CREST Security Review, November 2021. [Link]

Media

Michael E. Miller and Frances Vinall, ‘Death threats, mock hangings and a used condom: Anti-vaxxers target Australian politicians’, Washington Post, 1 December 2021. [Link]

Research conference presentations

‘Contact zones: Change and persistence in terrorist recruitment methods, tactics and procedures’, AVERT Research Symposium (presenting on behalf of Michele Grossman, Vanessa Barolsky, Lydia Khalil, Vivian Gerrand, Hass Dellal, Natalie Davis, Mario Peucker, Paul Thomas and Kris Christmann), 4 November 2021.

ADRIAN CHERNEY

Publications

Cherney, A & Belton, E. (2021) The Evaluation of Case-managed Programs Targeting Individuals at Risk of Radicalisation, Terrorism and Political Violence. [Link]

Cherney, A. (2021) Working with radicalised individuals: Insights from a secondary and tertiary prevention program, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression DOI 10.1080/19434472.2021.2013291 

Projects

Recently awarded grant: Professor Adrian Cherney, Criminology Research Grant, CRG 40/21-22: Testing the application of violent extremism risk assessment to individuals who have radicalised in Australia ($84,867). Australian Institute of Criminology. 

Conference presentations/seminars 

Adrian Cherney & Emma Belton, “On-line behaviours and activities amongst individuals who have radicalised in Australia”. Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference, 8th – 10th December 2021. 

Cherney, (2021). Program Evaluations at Countering Violent Extremism and/or Reintegration Process. Persada Indonesia University | DASPR.  Indonesia, Jakarata, 9-9-21, online seminar.

Cherney, A. (2021). What has been learnt from case-managed programs targeting violent extremists in Australia: Lessons for CVE program delivery and evaluation. AVERT 2021 International Research Symposium, Violent Extremism at the Crossroads: Persistence, Change and Dynamism 20 Years After 9/11, 3-5 November.

IMOGEN RICHARDS

Conference presentations

‘Eco-fascism, Covid-19 and conspiracy: far-right activist responses to contemporary social crises’, The Disaffection Seminar Series: Feeling in Crisis, University of Melbourne, November 2021. [Link] [Video]

‘Using Open Sources to Build the First Database of Hate in Australia (DaHA): A Pilot Test Run’, AVERT Research Symposium. Dr Matteo Vergani, Dr Imogen Richards, Professor Greg Barton, Alexandra Lee, Haily Tran, Dan Goodhardt Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, November 2021. [Link]

‘Using Open Sources to Build a Database of Hate in Australia: A Pilot Test’, CRIS 2021 Conference, Dr Matteo Vergani and Dr Imogen Richards, Deakin University. [Link]

‘Neoliberalism, COVID-19 and conspiracy: Pandemic management strategies and the far-right social turn’, ADI Conference: Recovery, Reconfiguration and Repair.

Publications

‘Quillette, Classical Liberalism and the International New Right’ (Book Chapter), in Contemporary Far-right Thinkers and the Future of Liberal Democracy, Routledge series on Fascism and the Far Right. [Link]

ANDREW ZAMMIT

Media

The infiltrator who helped hatch a terror plot, ABC Background Briefing, 5 December 2021. [Link]