Prevention of Violent Extremism: The Contribution of Muslim Support for Religious Freedom

Center for Islam and Religious Freedom

Wednesday, March 29, 2017  |  12:15-1:30 PM  |  SRH 3.122

5cf8d68adfbc926b964baa0e9f5b8056

Jennifer S. Bryson is Director of Operations and Development at the Center for Islam and Religious Freedom (CIRF) in Washington, DC. Her research focuses on Muslim support for religious freedom and ways Muslims are countering extremism through story-based arts (novels, feature films, and plays). Jennifer has a B.A. from Stanford University in Political Science, an M.A. from Yale University in History, and a Ph.D. from Yale in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

From late 2001-2008 she worked for the U.S. Department of Defense. Her assignments included strategic outreach to media and civil society institutions in Egypt and Yemen, working at the Defense Intelligence Agency, and serving on the Policy staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. From 2009 – 2014 she was Director of the Islam and Civil Society Project at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ and from 2014-2016 she was founding Director at the Zephyr Institute in Palo Alto, CA. 

She has been teaching part-time at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA since 2010. In 2012-2013 she was a Visiting Professor at the U.S. Army War College and she continues to teach part-time now as a Visiting Professor.

She is a member of the Group of Friends Experts for the Convention against Torture Initiative 2024 (cti2024). She serves on the Advisory Council of the Center for Women, Faith, and Leadership at the Institute for Global Engagement.