Dr Sarah Marsden
Centre Director and Senior Lecturer
Sarah Marsden is Director of CSTPV and a Senior Lecturer in the School of International Relations. Sarah is also Director of St Andrews Practice Insight Research and Education (SPIRE), a social enterprise that provides consultancy, training and applied research services.
My research and teaching take an interdisciplinary approach to radical and violent politics. I look at transnational social movements, violent militant networks, grassroots activists, and those practicing everyday forms of resistance from a range of ideological positions including militant Islamists, anti-fascists, radical environmental activists, and far-right religious nationalists. I have published widely on these subjects in journals including Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and the Journal of Strategic Studies.
My work on political contention takes a participatory approach, engaging with a wide range of stakeholders including government bodies, practitioners, charities, and community-led groups to develop real-world solutions to complex social problems.
My research is funded by a range of bodies including the ESRC, the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats, the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, as well as government agencies and international organisations.
Current projects include work on the role of trauma and adversity in terrorism; the relationships between protest and political violence; and evaluation of terrorism prevention interventions.