Miraji Hassan Mohamed

Miraji Hassan Mohamed has completed her PhD at the School of Law and Government. She is a former education counsellor at Windle Trust International (Kenya) and worked as an Advocacy and Network Officer at the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) in The Hague, Netherlands.

Education:

MA. In Development Studies (major in Human Rights, Gender and Conflict Studies: Social Justice Perspectives) International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2015

BSc. Degree in Counseling Psychology, Moi University Kenya.

Supervisor(s): Prof. Maura Conway and Dr. Walt Kilroy

Thesis Title: Contested Notions of ‘Radicalisation’ and Youth Vulnerability in Mombasa County, Kenya: An Analysis of National and Local Discourses

Thesis Abstract:

CVE is a policy area within counterterrorism that is mainly concerned with preventative non-coercive approaches to combatting the threat of terrorism with the long-term objective being to prevent radicalisation, build resilience, and to deter terrorism. The purpose of this research is to critique how Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) interventions continue to be underpinned by the discourse of ‘youth at risk’.

In Kenya, since 2001, terrorism has continued to be the focus of security, resulting in the adoption of legislation, financial laws, the establishment of institutions and agencies, and practices aimed at reducing the risk of terrorism. The European Union has invested approximately €34 million on CVE initiatives dedicated to research, capacity building, counter-messaging, and socio-economic development implemented by government agencies such as National Counter Terrorism Commission, CSO’s, NGOs and CBOs. These actors play a significant role in producing specialist knowledge and informing policies and practices, thus forming an integral part of this study. This research interviewed CSOs, NGOs, CBOs (as practitioners of CVE) to find out how dominant knowledge frames youth and how this framing shapes the way we look and think about specific problems. The findings were triangulated with interviews conducted with youth (as beneficiaries of CVE) to examine the implications of the dominant knowledge on their lives.

Most previous studies have overlooked the role of language and discourse in framing radicalisation. Instead, they have limited their focus to investigating cause and effect relationships of radicalisation. This study is the first of its kind in Kenya to generate insight on the role of language; in shaping domestic politics, constructing internal and external threats, and structuring politics and responses. Thus, it offers recommendations on how to make CVE interventions more nuanced and reflective..

Areas of Interest: Discourses of radicalisation and extremism, Terrorism and political violence, Discourses of youth vulnerability.

Conferences:

Conference paper “Situating (WO)Men in Discourses of Terrorism in Kenya: A Critical Analysis of News Coverage” presented at the 14^th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, 16 September 2021.

Conference paper “A Critical Discourse Analysis of 'Youth Radicalisation': A Case of the Daily Nation Kenya Online Newspaper” presented at the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), 09 July 2019, the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.

Conference paper “Constructing Internal Threats: A Genealogical analysis of ‘Youth Radicalisation’ in Kenya” presented at the Society for Terrorism Research 2019 4^th Annual Postgraduate Conference, 06 September 2019, Coventry University, United Kingdom.

Publications:

Mohamed, M.H. (2021) 'Kenya’s War on Terror', In: Richmond O., Visoka G. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_160-1.

Mohamed, M. H. (2021) ‘Dangerous or political? Kenyan youth negotiating political agency in the age of ‘new terrorism’’, Media, War & Conflict. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352211028406.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8234-3116

Summer school(s):

Attended ‘Interview Methodology, and How to write your Methodology Chapter’ at the 11^th Qualitative Research Summer school 2018. Organised by Dublin City University Ireland from 5 June to 8 June 2018.

Attended ‘NVivo Training 2017’ at Dublin City University, Ireland from 10 to 11 October 2017.

Attended ‘Beyond the Interview: walking, hearing and picturing social worlds’ at the 10^th Qualitative Research Summer School 2017. Organised by Dublin City University, Ireland from 25 and 26 April 2017.

Email address: miraji.mohamed4@mail.dcu.ie

Twitter: @Miraj_HMohamed