10th Anniversary of STR's Annual Postgraduate Conference: Current Themes in the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence

Session

Media, Culture, and the Politics of Radicalisation

3A

29 May 2026, 14:30

4.08 (Williamson Building)

19. From Views to Violence? Islamist Narratives on TikTok

Lea Brost

29/05/2026, 14:30

Paper

Islamists are quick to adapt to the evolving landscape online and have repeatedly used social media platforms to recruit people and convince them of their ideas. With TikTok having over 1 billion active users, it is unsurprising that Islamists also use the platform now to mobilise (young) people. To do this, they emulate TikTok aesthetics and trends and use popular-cultural references to make...

27. Music and the Countering of Radicalization during the ISIS Offensive in Iraq (2014–2017)

Hannaneh Akbarpour (Yale University)

29/05/2026, 14:45

Paper

During the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) offensive in Iraq (2013-2017), the group deployed sophisticated media strategies to attract and recruit both foreign fighters and individuals within Iraq. Through its media network, the extremist organization circulated an ideology marked by extreme violence, ethnoreligious cleansing, and the systematic subjugation of women, alongside the...

31. Visualising Terror: Gendered Representations of Muslim Women in British Television

Ruby Bashir (Royal Holloway, University of London)

29/05/2026, 15:00

Paper

British popular culture plays a key role in shaping how terrorism is imagined and made visible within everyday life. Amid concerns over national cohesion and extremism, Muslim women have emerged as symbolic figures within British cultural discourse. Often framed as a ‘foreign’ Other, they appear within televisual narratives as oppressed figures in need of emancipation or as subjects of...