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Department of Computer Science and Technology

  • Research Staff
  • This person is no longer active in the department.

Research

I joined the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre in December 2020 to work on expanding and utilising the data being collected from online extremist sources. For the past decade I have been working on motivations for and pathways to joining extremist organisations, mostly using field-based techniques in a multi-disciplinary team of psychologists and anthropologists. My role in this research was to interview extremists, ex-extremists, and non-extremist fighters all over the world, from the front line in Iraq to prisons to homes. Now my attention is shifting to these same motivations but expressed online, and broadening the collaborations of the centre to academics and other researchers working on extremism. 

For the past 4 years, I have worked extensively as a consultant in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE), for clients ranging from UN agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UN Women, UN University) and governments (UK, USA, Tunisia, Jordan, Australia) and NGOs and think tanks, and am working on a book to do with this industry and the manufactured expertise on which it relies. 

I edit the Cambridge Literary Review and am a contributing editor and staff writer at Newlines Magazine

Publications

Journal articles

  • Wilson, L. and Jenkins, R., 2020. EDUCATING REFUGEES: THE IMPACT OF A PROSOCIAL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR SYRIAN REFUGEES IN JORDAN Journal of International Development, v. 32
    Doi: http://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3463
  • Gómez, Á., López-Rodríguez, L., Sheikh, H., Ginges, J., Wilson, L., Waziri, H., Vázquez, A., Davis, R. and Atran, S., 2017. The devoted actor's will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict. Nat Hum Behav, v. 1
    Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0193-3
  • Wilson, LS., 2017. Understanding the Appeal of ISIS New England Journal of Public Policy,
  • Lourenço, MC. and Wilson, L., 2013. Scientific heritage: Reflections on its nature and new approaches to preservation, study and access Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, v. 44
    Doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2013.07.011
  • Jardine, N. and Wilson, L., 2013. Recent material heritage of the sciences Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A,
  • Jardine, N. and Wilson, L., 2013. Recent material heritage of the sciences Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, v. 44
    Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2013.07.007
  • Sheikh, H., Atran, S., Ginges, J., Wilson, L., Obeid, N. and Davis, R., The Devoted Actor as Parochial Altruist: Sectarian Morality, Identity Fusion, and Support for Costly Sacrifices Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution, v. 5
    Doi: 10.21237/c7clio5124901
  • Wilson, LS. and Waziri, H., Haunted by their past: Kurds and the Islamic State Sentinel,
  • Wilson, LS., Intangible histories and the invisible technician University Museums and Collections Journal,
    Doi: http://doi.org/10.18452/8717
  • Book chapters

  • Wilson, LS., 2020. Remembering the Lebanese Civil War
  • Wilson, LS., 2013. A Typology of Dispersed Collections: Collaborating with scientists and technicians
  • Wilson, LS., 2012. Scientific Heritage in Cambridge: an introduction
  • Contact Details

    Email: 

    lsmw2@cam.ac.uk