Samantha Wampold

Samantha Wampold is a researcher at the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University. Her research interests include domestic extremism, the use of child conditioning as a tool of narrative control, and the processes through which extremist ecosystems develop.

Samantha holds a Master’s degree in Terrorism, Security & Society from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. During her studies, she completed a Policy Fellowship at the Pinsker Centre, a foreign policy think tank that convenes senior policymakers, diplomats, and academics for discussions on international affairs and Middle East policy at universities across the United Kingdom. At King’s College London, her dissertation examined the development of programs by terrorist groups aimed at conditioning youth populations to accept violent approaches to political conflict, with analysis of educational curricula, summer camps, and media content targeted at children. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Global and Regional Studies with a concentration in the Middle East and a minor in Modern Hebrew Studies from the University of Washington.

Her writing has addressed issues related to terrorism and radicalization in Europe and the Middle East, and she has contributed to public discussions on these topics through appearances on the People Talk Politics podcast.

Publications