Simone Matassa

Simone Matassa is currently studying at the Technological University of Dublin in Ireland where she conducts research on the Western media’s representation of Islamic state terrorism. This research aims to show the significance of sensationalising certain terrorist attacks in the media and the effects of such on the general public and for terrorist organizations. Prior to this, she completed her Undergraduate Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology at The National University of Ireland where she carried out research on religious extremism and the social/psychological motivations of terrorism.

As a Counter-Terrorism Research Fellow with Rise to Peace, Simone will be focusing on women in extremism in order to highlight how women become involved in terrorism and to create a comparison between the processes of radicalization for women versus men. The issues surrounding women in extremism are particularly under-researched and she hopes through her work at Rise to Peace to help shed light on this complex dynamic and create something that could help educate people on the factors that may lead a person to become more susceptible to joining a terrorist organization.