Dr. Bethan Johnson
Assistant Professor
Dr. Johnson is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Intelligence & Security Studies at The Citadel, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on international and domestic terrorism, national security and conspiracy theories, vigilantism, modern militia movements, and intelligence collection methods.
Prior to joining The Citadel, Dr. Johnson held a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA’s Initiative to Study Hate and a year-long Ernest May Fellowship in History & Policy at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. During these fellowships, she conducted research on white supremacist terrorism worldwide and authored a series of policy-relevant reports on the subject.During the 2026-2027 year, she will serve as a Higher Education Ambassador for the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Johnson has served as principal investigator or co-author on mixed-method studies of terrorism and extremism for organizations including Meta, the Global Network on Extremism & Technology, the Counter Extremism Project, and the International Center for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT). She regularly presents her research at international conferences and invited forums, with recent engagements in Singapore, South Africa, Qatar, Sweden, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. Her scholarship has appeared in peer reviewed journals including Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Twentieth Century British History, and Public Jurist. Her work has also been included in the edited collection such as Explaining Extreme Belief and Behavior (Oxford University Press) and a forthcoming work on white supremacists’ parallel economies.
Beyond academia, Dr. Johnson’s expertise informs policy and legal practice. She has served as an expert consultant to the European Commission, the UK Home Office, the UK Crown Prosecution Service, and the California Commission on the State of Hate. Her research and commentary have appeared in outlets including the BBC, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal, and her work has been recognized with the Terrorism Research Award and a Spencer Research Library Travel Award. For several years, she has maintained positions as Reviews and Social Media Editor for Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies and a Current & Emerging Threats Fellow with the ICCT.
Degrees
Ph.D. History (The University of Cambridge)
M.A. Modern British History (The University of Cambridge)
B.A. History, English, and Jewish Studies (Vassar College)