Kevin McDonald joined Middlesex University as Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Criminology and Sociology in July 2013. He is active in international research networks around engagement and disengagement from violence, social and religious movements and the construction of civil societies, and the empowering role of digital technologies. He is a facilitator with the UK-based Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA), where he is active in the Syria Programme. He has held senior academic positions at the University of Melbourne in Australia, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, together with a Marie Curie International Fellowship at Goldsmiths College in London. He is a research associate at the Centre d'Analyse et d'Intervention Sociologiques at the EHESS, Paris.
Qualifications:
Doctorat (Sociology) Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris,1991
Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies (Sociology) Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1983
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) La Trobe University, Melbourne (1978)
Key publications:
Radicalization, Cambridge: Polity, 2018
Our Violent World: Terrorism in Society, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013
Global Movements: Action and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell, 2006
Struggles for Subjectivity: Identity, Action and Youth Experience, Cambridge: Cambridge Unieversity Press, 1999
Fluent in French and Spanish
English, French, Spanish
Professor McDonald is actively engaged in developing new ways to link theory and practice in the social sciences. In particular he is working to support experiential learning and placements and internships in Middlesex University's criminology and sociology programmes.
Professor McDonald's research focuses on culture, politics and action. Key areas include social movements, urban gangs, uses of digial communications, justice and ethics in action, engagement and disengagement from violence. Professor McDonald is available to supervise doctoral students in these areas.
Acik, Necla and Brand-Jacobsen, Kay and Dolgin, D. and Griner, J. and McDonald, Kevin and Pirlogea, Isabel (2022) Drivers of far-right extremism. In: How to explain radicalization? A comparison on the driving factors of the far-right, the far-left, separatist and religious extremism. Antonelli, Francesco and Marione, Lorenzo , eds. Sociological Challenges (2). Mimesis International, Milan, pp. 89-134. ISBN 9788869774041
McDonald, Kevin (2020) Jihadist and far-right extremism: subjectivity, embodiment and imaginaries of violence. In: United by violence, divided by cause? A comparison of drivers of radicalisation and violence in Asia and Europe. Waha, La Toya , ed. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, Germany, pp. 33-49. ISBN 9783848764495
Parkinson, Tom and McDonald, Kevin and Quinlan, Kathleen M. (2020) Reconceptualising academic development as community development: lessons from working with Syrian academics in exile. Higher Education , 79 (2). pp. 183-201. ISSN 0018-1560
McDonald, Kevin (2018) Radicalization. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9781509522606
McDonald, Kevin (2015) From Indymedia to Anonymous: rethinking action and identity in digital cultures. Information, Communication & Society , 18 (8). pp. 968-982. ISSN 1369-118X
Current funded research:
De-radicalization: Sociology of an Experience. British Academy Small Grant (2019-2021).
Analysing and Preventing Extremism by Participation, European Union Horizon 2020, 2020-2023
Commissioning Editor for Social Movements in the 21st Century book series at Routledge.
Member of international Advisory Boards forSocial Movement Studies(Taylor and Francis), Sociology Compass(Blackwell), Sociopedia.ISA(Sage).
Member of the EU Radicalisation Awareness Network.
Expert Evaluator with the European Research Executive Agency for Horizon 2020.
