Spring 'Pryor Center Presents' Lecture Series Launches Jan. 21

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Jeff Gruenewald, director of the University of Arkansas' Terrorism Research Center.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – “Far-Right Flashpoints and the Enduring Threat of Violent Extremism in America” will be the first lecture in the spring Pryor Center Presents series. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences opens its spring 2021 lecture series at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21. 

The lecture will be presented by Jeff Gruenewald, associate professor and Director of the Terrorism Research Center in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Arkansas.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It will be held virtually via Zoom and registration is required.

Gruenewald’s lecture will explore how the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 exposed a rage and conspiratorial beliefs among far-right extremists that usually exist at only the margins of society. 

“While shocking and nuanced, these underlying views are not new, and deadly attacks by far-right extremists occur every year in the United States,” Gruenewald said.

Deeply rooted in white supremacism and anti-government conspiracy theories, Gruenewaldsaid the extreme far-right commits ideologically motivated murders of law enforcement and others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. 

“While terrorism has historically been perceived as a threat from outside our nation’s borders, the federal government considers domestic violent extremism, specifically white supremacists, the biggest threat to homeland security,” he said.

In this talk, Gruenewald will discuss his research on how deadly far-right extremism is unique from other types of terrorism in the United States, who perpetrates this type of violence and why, as well as who is most likely to be targeted. 

He will also explore how the criminal justice system has responded to far-right extremists over the last 30 years and what types of policies and programs may work to reduce the risk of this type of violence. 

Additional upcoming Pryor Center Presents lectures this spring include:

• Jan. 27 – Steve Boss presents “Far-Field Effects of Sea-Level Rise: We Are All Coastal”
• March 3 – Randy Dixon and Kyle Kellams present “Arkansas News History: KATV Archives”
• April 1 – Kevin M. Fitzpatrick and Matthew L. Spialek present “Hurricane Harvey's Aftermath”
• April 21 – Caree A. Banton presents “Election and Identity Politics: Interrogating Group Belonging in Black and White Republics”

For more information or to register for any of these events, please visit the Pryor Center online at pryorcenter.uark.edu.

About Jeff Gruenewald: Jeff Gruenewald is an associate professor and director of the Terrorism Research Center in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Arkansas. He leads the American Terrorism Study and Bias Homicide Database housed at the Terrorism Research Center. Gruenewald has published more than 40 studies on issues related to domestic violent extremism, murder, and media representations of violence in America. He is also a co-editor of the edited volume titled “Right-wing extremism in Canada and the United States” set to be published later this year by Palgrave Macmillan.

About the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History: The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity, and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the Internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs, and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations' recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive, and provides public access to the archive, primarily through the website at pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state's only oral and visual history program with a statewide, 75- county mission to collect, preserve and share audio and moving image recordings of Arkansas history.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs.