Researcher
Dr Julia Ebner is an academic known for her research in the fields of radicalisation, extremism and terrorism prevention.
She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Calleva Centre for Evolution and Human Science at University of Oxford (Magdalen College). She is also the Lab Group Leader of the “Cohesion and Violence Lab” at Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion. Julia completed her DPhil in Anthropology at Oxford University as a fully funded ESRC DTP Scholar and a St John’s College Alumni Fund Scholar. Her DPhil research has been shortlisted for the ESRC Impact Prize 2023 and won the MRS President’s Medal 2023.
Julia holds an MSc (Dist) in International History from the London School of Economics and an MSc (Dist) in International Relations from Peking University. She completed her undergraduate studies with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy and a BSc in International Business. Julia is fluent in English, German and French and has intermediate Spanish and Mandarin skills.
Research Awards
ESRC Impact Prize finalist
Finalist for the ESRC Impact Prize 2023
Winner of the MRS President’s Medal 2023 (with Chris Kavanagh and Harvey Whitehouse)
Winner of the Dr Caspar Einem Prize 2022
Winner of the Science Book of the Year Award 2020 (Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2020)
Winner of the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book of the Year 2018
Research Grants
Calleva Centre of Evolution and Human Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship (2024-2026), University of Oxford
Airey Neave Trust Fellowship (2024-2026), University of Oxford
British Academy Talent Development Award (2024-2025), University of Oxford (with Harvey Whitehouse)
ESRC Full DTP Scholarship (2019-2023), University of Oxford
St John’s College Alumni Fund Scholarship (2019-2023), University of Oxford
Co-Investigator on a research project funded by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (2019-2020), Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Full Chinese Government Scholarship (2013-2014), Peking University
Scholarship of Academic Excellence (2010-2013), Vienna University
Scholarship of Academic Excellence (2010-2013), Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration
Guest Lectures
Johns Hopkins University, University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, UC Berkeley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, George Washington University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge University, Exeter University, King’s College London, Leiden University and University of Vienna; curriculum development for the far-right extremism course at NATO School Oberammergau; a teaching tour through Saxony (Germany) organised by Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (Nov 2018); part-time teacher at high schools in Beijing (Sept 2013 - June 2014)
Selected Publications
Ebner, Julia, The Language of Terrorists: Distinguishing Trolls from Violent Extremists (N.Y.: Columbia UP) – forthcoming 2024.
Ebner, Julia, Going Mainstream: How Extremists Are Taking Over (London: Ithaka Press/Bonnier Books, 2023) – translated into three languages.
Ebner, Julia, Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists (London: Bloomsbury, 2020) – translated into seven languages.
Ebner, Julia, The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017) – translated into three languages.
Monographs
Ebner, Julia and Jakob Guhl, “Extremism and conspiracy myths on social media” in The Routledge Handbook of Conflict and Peace Communication (Abington: Routledge, 2024) – forthcoming.
Ebner, Julia and Harvey Whitehouse, “Identity and Extremism: Sorting out the causal pathways to radicalization and violent self-sacrifice”, The Routledge Handbook on Radicalization and Countering Radicalization (Abington: Routledge, 2023).
Ebner, Julia, “Verschwörungstheorien – Was Corona mit unserer Gesellschaft macht“ in Corona Stories (Berlin: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2020).
Ebner, Julia, “Countering (Post-)Digital Hate: What Can Civil Society Do?” in Fielitz, Maik and Nick Thurston (eds), Back to Front Truths: Opposing the Post Digital Cultures of the Far-Right (Columbia University Press, 2019).
Crawford, Justin, Ebner Julia and Usama Hasan, “The Balanced Nation: Addressing the Challenges of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism in the Classroom” in (eds.) Panjwani, F. et al., Education and Extremisms (Abington: Routledge, 2018).
Book Chapters
Ebner, Julia, Christopher Kavanagh and Harvey Whitehouse, “Assessing Violence Risk among Far-Right Extremists: A New Role for Natural Language Processing”, Terrorism and Political Violence, July 2023.
Ebner, Julia, Christopher Kavanagh and Harvey Whitehouse, “Measuring Socio-Psychological Drivers of Extreme Violence in Online Terrorist Manifestos: An Alternative Linguistic Risk Assessment Model”, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, August 2023.
Ebner, Julia, Christopher Kavanagh and Harvey Whitehouse, “The QAnon Security Threat: A Linguistic Fusion-Based Violence Risk Assessment”, Perspectives on Terrorism, Special Issue on Anti-Government Extremism, December 2022.
Ebner, Julia, Christopher Kavanagh and Harvey Whitehouse, “Is There a Language of Terrorists? A Comparative Manifesto Analysis, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, August 2022.
Ebner, Julia, “Replatforming Unreality”, MIT Journal of Design and Science, Issue 6: Unreal, September 2019.
Ebner, Julia, “The Sino-European Race for Africa’s Minerals: When Two Quarrel A Third Rejoices”, Resources Policy Vol. 43, March 2015.
Journal Articles
Ebner, Julia. “Decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) in the metaverse: the future of extremist organisation?”, Project Immersive Democracy, European Metaverse Research Network, September 2023.
Busher, Joel, Gareth Harris, Julia Ebner at al. “The Dynamics of Violence Escalation and Inhibition during 'Hot Periods' of Anti-Minority and Far-Right Activism “, Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST), February 2022.
Guhl, Jakob, Julia Ebner and Jan Rau. “The Online Ecosystem of the German Far-Right”, Institute for Strategic Dialogue and Robert Bosch Foundation, February 2020.
Davey, Jacob and Julia Ebner. “The Great Replacement: The Violent Consequences of Mainstreamed Extremism”, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, July 2019.
Ebner, Julia and Jacob Davey. “How Women Advance the Internationalization of the Far-Right”, George Washington University, Program on Extremism, February 2019.
Fielitz, Maik, Julia Ebner, et al. “Loving Hate: Anti-Muslim Extremism, Radical Islamism and the Spiral of Polarization”, Institute for Democracy and Civil Society and Institute for Strategic Dialogue, June 2018.
Baldauf, Johannes, Julia Ebner and Jakob Guhl (eds). "Hate Speech and Radicalisation Online: The OCCI Research Report“, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, September 2018.
Kreißel, Philip, Julia Ebner, et al. "Hate at the Push of a Button: Right-Wing troll factories and the ecosystem of coordinated hate campaigns online“, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, July 2018.
Ebner, Julia and Jacob Davey. "Mainstreaming Mussolini: How the Extreme Right Attempted to ‘Make Italy Great Again’ in the 2018 Italian Election", Institute for Strategic Dialogue, March 2018.
Davey, Jacob and Julia Ebner, "The Fringe Insurgency. Connectivity, Convergence and Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right", Institute for Strategic Dialogue, October 2017.
Ebner, Julia und Leah Selig Chauhan. “Families Succeed Where Weapons and Security Fail”, Centre for Mediterranean Integration (CMI), MENA Office of The World Bank, May 2017.
Young, Holly, Julia Ebner, et al. “Evidence-Based Policy Advice”, Terrorism and Radicalisation (TERRA), European Commission, July 2016.
Nawaz, Maajid and Julia Ebner. “The EU and Terrorism: Is the UK Safer in or Out?”, The EU in A Changing Europe, King’s College London, May 2016.
Reports and Policy Briefings
Research enquiries
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