Mia Bloom

Professor, Georgia State University. Mia Bloom is Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies at Georgia State University. She conducts ethnographic field research in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia and speaks eight languages. She has authored several books and articles on terrorism and political extremism including Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (2005), Living Together After Ethnic Killing [with Roy Licklider] (2007) and Bombshell: The Many Faces Of Women Terrorists (2011). A former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Bloom has held research or teaching appointments at Princeton, Cornell, Harvard and McGill Universities. Under the auspices of the Minerva Research Initiative (MRI) of Department of Defense, Bloom is currently conducting two different research projects, one on how children become involved in terrorist organizations. A book on this topic, Small Arms: Children and Terror will be published next year with Cornell University Press (2018). The second project focuses on ISIS’ encrypted apps and how terrorist groups foster a psychological and emotional dependency to propaganda as part of their radicalization process. Bloom is regularly interviewed by MSNBC and CNN for terrorism and national security related issues. Bloom has a PhD in political science from Columbia University, a Masters in Arab Studies from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a Bachelors from McGill University in Russian, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.