Research
Computational Political Science & Extremism Studies
Research Statement
My research addresses a fundamental question in the study of political violence: How do online communities translate into offline political action? I argue that digital platforms are not mere communication channels but constitutive environments where political identities are formed, grievances are framed, and collective action is coordinated. Understanding political violence in the 21st century requires new theoretical frameworks and computational methods capable of tracing these online-offline dynamics.
This research agenda makes three interconnected contributions:
Theoretical: I develop a framework conceptualizing digital platforms as identity laboratories, coordination infrastructure, and meaning-making spaces—each with distinct implications for mobilization potential.
Methodological: I combine machine learning, natural language processing, and social network analysis to measure phenomena that traditional methods cannot capture at scale.
Substantive: My empirical work reveals how network structures, ideological coherence, and platform affordances shape when online extremism produces real-world violence.
Core Research Questions:
- Under what conditions do online communities produce offline political violence?
- How do platform characteristics shape radicalization and mobilization processes?
- What role do emerging technologies (AI, gaming platforms) play in extremist recruitment?
Citation Metrics
Google Scholar Profile: 1,093 total citations | h-index: 7 | i10-index: 5 | Research Areas: collective behavior, online communities, extremism, conspiracy theories, video games
Impact Highlights:
- Featured in major outlets including Washington Post, NYT, NPR, BBC
- 276K+ total article views
- Research cited in policy reports and academic literature
Featured Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Newhouse, A. and Kowert, R. (2025). “Extremist Identity Creation Through Performative Infighting on Steam.” Frontiers in Psychology, August 2025.
Analysis of how extremist identity crystallizes through performative displays of ideological purity and intra-group conflict within gaming platform communities, revealing mechanisms of community cohesion and radicalization without central leadership.
Kowert, R., Kilmer, E., and Newhouse, A. (2024). “Taking it to the Extreme: Prevalence and Nature of Extremist Sentiment in Games.” Frontiers in Psychology, 15:1410620.
This study addresses the gap in research knowledge around extremist sentiment in games by evaluating prevalence, location, nature, and impact through an online survey of 423 game players, revealing alarmingly high rates of extremist content exposure and normalization within gaming cultures.
- Funded by: Department of Homeland Security (DHS # EMW-2022-GR-00036)
- Key Finding: More than half of all game players report experiencing some form of hate, harassment or abuse within gaming spaces, with extremist rhetoric becoming culturally normalized
Newhouse, A. (2021). “The Threat is the Network: The Multi-Node Structure of Neo-Fascist Accelerationism.” CTC Sentinel, 14(5).
Since 2015, the Atomwaffen Division has received bulk academic and media attention in coverage of the neo-fascist accelerationist movement, but evidence reveals it was not the apex of a hierarchy but rather one node in a larger network of violent accelerationists built on membership fluidity, frequent communications, and a shared goal of social destruction.
- Innovation: Novel network-based framework for understanding extremist movements
- Policy Impact: Enforcement against individuals and groups is necessary but not sufficient—focus on specific groups may not tackle the root of the issue
- Citations: Extensively cited in terrorism studies and cited in recent Studies in Conflict & Terrorism article
McGuffie, K. and Newhouse, A. (2020). “The Radicalization Risks of GPT-3 and Advanced Neural Language Models.” arXiv preprint, 2009.06807.
We show GPT-3’s strength in generating text that accurately emulates interactive, informational, and influential content that could be utilized for radicalizing individuals into violent far-right extremist ideologies and behaviors. While OpenAI’s preventative measures are strong, the possibility of unregulated copycat technology represents significant risk for large-scale online radicalization and recruitment.
- Impact: Among the first assessments of generative-LM misuse risk; cited in subsequent work on AI and extremism
- Media Coverage: Extensive coverage in The Register, Vice, and other tech outlets
- Policy Influence: Already in 2020, Kris McGuffie and Alex Newhouse highlighted the potential for abuse of generative language models by assessing GPT-3, revealing significant risk for large-scale online radicalization and recruitment
Book Chapters
Newhouse, A. and Kowert, R. (2025). “Recruitment and mobilization in digital gaming spaces.” Handbuch Gaming & Rechtsextremismus (ed. Linda Schlegel), October 2025.
Kowert, R. and Newhouse, A. (2025). “Digital games as cultural assets of influence.” The Sociology of Violent Extremism (ed. Suraj Lakhani and Amarnath Amarasingam), May 2025.
Newhouse, A. and Kowert, R. (2024). “Digital games as vehicles for extremist recruitment and mobilization.” Gaming and Extremism: The Radicalization of Digital Playgrounds (ed. Linda Schlegel and Rachel Kowert), March 2024.
Under Review
Benton, A., Newhouse, A., and Philips, A. (2025). “Mind the Gap! Policy Dissonance and Financial Markets.”
Newhouse, A., Kaur, K., and Philips, A. (2025). “Partisan Polarization Shapes Visual Framing of COVID-19 in U.S. Media.”
Public Writing
Newhouse, A. (2021). “Far-right activists on social media telegraphed violence weeks in advance of the attack on the US Capitol.” The Conversation. (35,400 views)
Newhouse, A. (2020). “Parler is bringing together mainstream conservatives, anti-Semites and white supremacists as the social media platform attracts millions of Trump supporters.” The Conversation. (241,000 views)
Multiple GNET Research Reports (2021-2022) on accelerationist movements and extremist narratives, including analysis of the Great Replacement theory and Boogaloo movement.
Research Areas & Methods
Substantive Focus Areas
Political Violence & Extremism
- Neo-fascist accelerationism and network structures
- Online-offline radicalization pathways
- Gaming platforms as extremist recruitment venues
- AI and synthetic media threats
Technology & Society
- Digital platform governance and content moderation
- AI safety and misuse potential
- Social media data analysis and behavioral patterns
- Gaming culture and political socialization
Methodological Expertise
Computational Methods
- Machine Learning (PyTorch, Scikit-Learn, Hugging Face Transformers)
- Natural Language Processing and text-as-data approaches
- Social Network Analysis (igraph, statnet)
- Time-series analysis and causal inference
Featured Technical Work:
- DistilBERT for Political Text Classification - Automated detection of extremist content using transformer models (94% F1-score)
Data & Platforms
- Large-scale social media data collection and analysis
- Gaming platform research and mixed-methods approaches
- Survey research and experimental design
- Qualitative coding and content analysis
Current Research Projects
Dissertation Research
“Social Processes and Collective Mobilization in the Online Extreme Right”
Investigating how decentralized, leaderless online extremist communities produce collective mobilization and political violence despite the absence of formal organizational hierarchy. Recent work examines apocalyptic rhetoric on 4chan and the crystallization of ideology within extremist forums. Uses transformer-based NLP, intervention analysis, interrupted time-series, network contagion analysis, and regression with novel datasets.
- Committee: Andrew Q. Philips (co-chair), Jennifer Fitzgerald (co-chair), Alexandra Siegel
- External Advisor: Brian Keegan (Information Science)
- Expected Completion: May 2028
- Recent Presentations: “‘The Happening Is Coming’: Apocalyptic Rhetoric on 4chan Following Mass Casualty Attacks” (APSA, September 2025); “Elite Influence in an Online Neo-Fascist Forum” (MPSA, April 2025)
Partisan Media Framing Study
“Partisan Polarization Shapes Visual Framing of COVID-19 in U.S. Media” (with Andrew Q. Philips and Komal P. Kaur)
Investigating partisan differences in visual and textual framing of pandemic coverage across U.S. news outlets using computer vision and text analysis methods. Paper presented at APSA (September 2025) and MPSA (April 2025).
Status: Under review for publication
Gaming & Extremism Research
“Multi-Platform Radicalization in Digital Gaming”
Comprehensive study of recruitment and radicalization processes within digital gaming environments, including partnerships with major gaming platforms for harm mitigation strategies. Recent publication: “Extremist Identity Creation Through Performative Infighting on Steam” (Frontiers in Psychology, August 2025).
Policy & Financial Markets
“Mind the Gap! Policy Dissonance and Financial Markets” (with Allyson L. Benton and Andrew Q. Philips)
Analysis of how political communications affect financial market behavior and investor decision-making.
Status: Under review
Humanities Workforce Analysis
Computational Study of the American Humanities Workforce
Overseeing large-scale computational study of the American humanities workforce using anonymized LinkedIn data at the National Humanities Alliance. Developing innovative mixed-methods approaches combining LLM ensembles with conventional NLP for analyzing career trajectories, diversity, and adaptability in the humanities sector.
Research Impact & Media Coverage
Academic Recognition
- Research extensively cited in terrorism studies literature
- Work featured in CTC Sentinel, premier counterterrorism publication
- Publications in top-tier psychology and computer science venues
Policy & Industry Impact
- January 6th Committee: Investigative consultant providing expertise on extremist movements
- Technology Partnerships: Direct collaboration with gaming companies (Roblox, Spectrum Labs)
- External Funding: $1.38M in externally funded grants as Principal Investigator
Media & Public Engagement
Major Media Features: Washington Post • New York Times • NPR (Morning Edition, All Things Considered) • BBC • Politico • Wired • Bloomberg Radio • Meet the Press Now
High-Impact Articles:
- Parler analysis: 241,000 views
- January 6th prediction: 35,400 views
Expert Commentary Topics:
- AI safety and misuse potential
- Gaming platform moderation
- Extremist recruitment strategies
- Social media radicalization
- Technology policy implications
Funding & Grants
As Principal Investigator
- Department of Homeland Security (2022-2024): Gaming and extremism research - $350,000
- Multiple Federal Grants (2019-2024): Extremism and technology studies - $1.38M total
As Co-Investigator
- Logically Partnership (2022): Social media data infrastructure for extremism research
- Various Industry Partnerships: Gaming platform safety research
Undergraduate and Graduate Research Involvement
My research agenda is designed to actively involve students at every stage. Since 2019, I have supervised 45 undergraduate and graduate research assistants and 15 independent student projects across multiple institutions. Currently, I supervise 3 CU Boulder undergraduate research assistants in Fall 2025. Students contribute meaningfully to my work through:
- Data collection and annotation — coding social media content, building datasets of extremist rhetoric, and collecting primary-source documents
- Qualitative and quantitative analysis — contributing to network analysis, text classification, and content analysis tasks
- Independent research projects — developing their own research questions within my broader agenda, with several student projects resulting in published reports
Past student projects have included investigations of Italian neofascism, militant accelerationist coalition-building, the French far-right on encrypted platforms, and AI implications for counterterrorism.
Future Research Directions
Emerging Technologies & Political Violence
- AI-generated disinformation and radicalization
- Virtual/augmented reality environments as political spaces
- Blockchain and decentralized platform governance
Comparative Extremism Studies
- Cross-national analysis of digital radicalization patterns
- Comparative platform governance approaches
- International cooperation in countering online extremism
Methodological Innovation
- Advanced causal inference methods for social media data
- Multi-modal analysis combining text, visual, and network data
- Real-time detection and intervention systems
For collaboration inquiries, media requests, or access to datasets, contact alex.newhouse@colorado.edu.
Google Scholar: Alex Newhouse • ORCID: Available upon request