Plenary Session 4: Looking Inward Addressing Domestic Violent Extremism

Kathleen Belew is an Assistant Professor of History at University of Chicago. She spent ten years researching and writing her first book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Harvard, 2018, paperback 2019). In it, she uses previously classified FBI documents and vivid personal testimonies to explore how white power activists created a social movement through a common story about betrayal by the government, war, and its weapons, uniforms, and technologies. By uniting Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, skinhead, and other groups, the movement mobilized and carried out escalating acts of violence that reached a crescendo in the 1905 bombing of Oklahoma City. This movement was never adequately confronted, and remains a presence in American life. Belew has appeared as a CNN Contributor and on The Rachel Maddow Show. The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell, AC 360 with Anderson Cooper, Frontline, Fresh Air, and All Things Considered.

Elizabeth Neumann is the Chief Strategy Officer for Moonshot, a social enterprise working to end online harms such as violent extremism, disinformation, child sexual exploitation,
gender-based violence, and human trafficking - by applying evidence, ethics, and human rights.

Ms. Neumann recently served as the Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention at DHS where she led eight program and policy teams addressing a range of issues including domestic violent extremism, screening and vetting, countering terrorism and transnational criminal organizations, and human trafficking. Since departing government in 2020, Ms. Neumann passionately educated the public about the growing threat of disinformation and domestic violent extremism through appearances on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, 20/20, and 60 Minutes, among others. She is a Board Member of the National Immigration Forum, founder and member of the Council on National Security and Immigration and a National Security Contributor at ABC News.