Kevin Grisham is the Assistant Director of Research at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernadino. His research focuses on violent political movements with specific focus on groups from the Middle East and North Africa. In recent years, this has included looking at the recruitment patterns and activities of groups like ISIS and AQ and related groups. We don’t yet what connection ISIS may have to the attacks in Orlando but if they turn out to even be tangentially connected, then Kevin can easily speak to those issues. His full bio is below. Political scientist and political violence scholar Kevin Grisham is an assistant professor of geography and environmental studies and assistant director of research for the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) where he specializes in analysis of terrorism, violent political movements and globalization. He teaches and develops curriculum within the Global Studies area of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at CSUSB. His regional research interest focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Prof. Grisham began his academic career as an adjunct professor at Victor Valley College in Victorville, California in 2001. He has taught in both of the public university systems in California (California State University system and the University of California system) and also the California community college system.
Prior to serving as the Assistant Director of Research at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, Professor Grisham served as Director of the Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (CIMES) at CSUSB and previously coordinated the minor and certificate program in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES). He currently serves as the Faculty Adviser for the internationally award-winning Model United Nations Program and the nationally award-winning Model Arab League Program.
Dr. Grisham holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside and a B.A. in Criminal Justice from CSUSB. In both instances, his coursework and writings focused on both domestic terrorism threats and global terrorism threats. His studies have focused on factors that lead various violent political movements to transform into other organizations over time. He is the author of The Transformation of Violent Political Movements: Rebels Today, What Tomorrow (Routledge, 2014) and the co-author of several articles published in leading academic journals, including the influential piece, “Staying Quartered Civilian Uprisings and Military Disobedience in the Twenty-First Century” (co-authored with Dr. David Pion-Berlin from the University of California, Riverside and Dr. Diego Esparza from the Naval Post-Graduate School). This study included Dr. Grisham’s analysis of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain.
Prof. Grisham has worked and conducted fieldwork in a variety of locations throughout the global community, for example – Yemen, China, Ireland and Northern Ireland. From 1999 to 2000, he served as a Program Officer at the Yemen Language Center (now, Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies) and studied Yemeni colloquial Arabic while in country. Dr. Grisham currently serves as the Vice President of the National Collegiate Conference Association (NCCA), a Non-governmental organization with affiliation with the United Nations.
Dr. Grisham has appeared numerous times on BBC WorldNews and is routinely interviewed by local media in Southern California concerning terrorism, ISIS (ISIL) and other related topics. He regularly speaks around the U.S. on issues related to terrorism and violent political movements.