Inga Kristina Trauthig (PhD, King’s College London) is the head of research of the Propaganda Research Lab at the Center for Media Engagement (CME). In her role, she conducts original research and helps lead the Lab’s strategy and management as co-PI. Previously, she has been a research fellow with the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and received an MLitt from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
She is interested in understanding violent and non-violent extremism, the societal impacts of emerging technologies – particularly regarding political competition, shifting power dynamics and related security implications. She speaks regularly to academic, media, and government audiences, and her writing has appeared in both popular and scholarly outlets. For example, she published on challenges of ‘the Dweb’ for the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), on new frontiers of disinformation for The Hill, or on the role of encrypted chat apps during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Lawfare. In peer-reviewed journals, Inga published about messaging apps in democratic backsliding in Political Research Quarterly, the creation of online ‘networked counterpublics’ amongst diaspora communities in the US for New Media & Society, or on ‘jihadist justice’ for Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, to name a few. Inga has focused specifically on the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly Libya, for several years.
Her work and comments have been featured by outlets like Al Jazeera, AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Houston Chronicle, Foreign Policy, or The Washington Post. Inga is regularly consulted by policy and security professionals and has given oral evidence in the U.K. Parliament, for instance. She is also an associate with institutions like the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) at King’s College London, Stanford University or Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin.