Brian Hughes is a doctoral student and adjunct professor in the School of Communication. His work explores the impact of communication technology on political and religious extremism, terrorism and fringe culture. His work has addressed the media ecosystem of ISIS, 20th-Century precursors of today's Alt-Right, the “Hardline” music subculture, and the media of the occult. This work seeks to identify the affective and material commonalities between extremists of differing ideologies, cultures, times, and places. His writing has been featured at CNN.com, Global-e, and he has appeared on All Things Considered and the NPROne Team Human podcast. He is an emerging career fellow with the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right. He is also a member of the Jihadi Networks of Communication and Cultures (JINCS) research group at the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
