Department of Sociology and Criminology Welcomes New Terrorism Research Center Director

University Relations

Jeff Gruenewald

The Department of Sociology and Criminology welcomes Jeff Gruenewald to its faculty this summer. Gruenewald joins the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences as an associate professor and director of the Terrorism Research Center.  

"We're very excited to have Dr. Gruenewald join our department and college," said Anna Zajicek, department chair and interim associate dean. "Dr. Gruenewald's nationally recognized scholarship and his research background coupled with a very successful federal grant acquisition record will greatly contribute to the recently announced signature research area in Human Health and Community Vibrancy."

Gruenewald graduated in 2009 with a doctorate in criminal justice from Michigan State University. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Arkansas from 2011 to 2015 before returning this year to serve as an associate professor and director of the Terrorism Research Center.

Gruenewald has been a co-PI on several federally-funded terrorism research projects and has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles, primarily on topics related to terrorism and other forms of extremism. The broad aim of Gruenewald's research is to harness the theoretical, methodological, and analytical tools of social science to study terrorism, extremism and counterterrorism in ways that inform, and are translatable to, homeland security policies and practices.

His work relies heavily on open-source databases not only to better understand terrorists' behaviors and the contexts in which they operate, but also to inform homeland security officials.

He draws from environmental criminology and situational crime perspectives to demonstrate how contextual factors shape terrorist decision-making and other outcomes, such as the extent to which terrorists are successful. His research over the last several years has used data from the American Terrorism Study (ATS) to investigate how temporal and geospatial patterns of radical Islamic, extreme far-right, and environmental terrorists shape opportunities for law enforcement and intelligence analysts to prevent terrorism.

This research has been funded by several multi-year research grants from the National Institute of Justice and conducted alongside other faculty in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, including distinguished professor Brent Smith, founder of the Terrorism Research Center and its first director, and Grant Drawve, assistant professor in the department. Gruenewald also continues to collaborate with colleagues and student researchers across the country on terrorism and other crime-related topics. 

About the Department: The Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice offers three degree programs and two honor societies; affiliation with three research units: the Community and Family Institute, the Terrorism Research Center, and the Center for Social Research; and research emphases in community, crime, health and well-being, and social data analytics.