I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at University College London, Department of Security and Crime Science. My current research examines the interplay between (social) media/information/communication/technology and hate/(violent) extremism/radicalisation in different permutations. I take an interdisciplinary approach and work in the borderlands of communication science, social psychology, and terrorism studies. I am also passionate about meta-research, improving research methods and analyses procedures in extremism and terrorism studies. In the past, I have studied risk factors of radicalisation more broadly, computer-mediated intergroup contact, and online collective action.

I am keen to translate my research into policy and practice. Doing so, I advise governments (e.g., London Violence Reduction Unit Online Harms Steering Committee, UK Commission on Countering Extremism, UAE Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development) and collaborate with civil society organisations, such as Soliya, to conduct impact evaluations.

I serve as the program director of the MSc Countering Extremist Crime and Terrorism. Furthermore, I am the module convenor of the undergraduate course ‘Terrorism’ and the post-graduate module ‘Online Hate Crime and Extremism’.

In 2018, I founded JDI Open, a seminar series on open science practices and innovative statistical methods. Since 2023, I am a co-lead of UCL’s chapter of the UK Reproducibility Network.

See my CV for more information.

Current Research Projects

• Identifying Paths of Engagement with The Com: A Mixed Methods Study - funded by NABS+
• A systematic review of methods for studying the impact of online activities/experiences on offline behaviour
• The Global Social Media Experiment - UK country co-lead

Current Doctoral Students

• First supervisor: Eleanore Wong (2025-present): Assessing How Extremist Content Online Can Promote Violence Offline to Identify Countermeasures
• First supervisor: Mary-Ann Cherry (2020-present): Developing a dictionary to assess the role of contempt in terrorist propaganda
• Second supervisor: Maria do Vau (2023-present): Using LLMs for influence campaigns
• Second supervisor: Tiago Garrido (2022-present): Preventing hostile behaviour in online gaming communities

If you are interested in completing your PhD with me, please get in touch at s.schumann [@] ucl.ac.uk.

Recent Pre-prints

Jia, Y., Hansen, K., Marques, T. G., Schumann, S., & Wei, Z. (2026). How Do Those Who Post Hate Speech Respond to Different Counter-speech Strategies? CrimRxiv. https://doi.org/10.21428/cb6ab371.4a019be9

Schumann, S., Celuch, M., Kauppila, E., Savolainen, I., & Oksanen, A. (2025). A longitudinal study of repeat online harms poly-victimization in six EU countries. CrimRxiv. https://doi.org/10.21428/cb6ab371.43919669

Recent Publications

2026

Mari, S., Vezzoli, M., Goh, J. X., Khan, S. S., Liu, J. H., & Schumann, S. (2026). Unraveling the Relationship Between Beliefs in Traditional Gender Roles and Voting Participation: A Cross-National Perspective. Gender Issues, 43(1), 2.

2025

Bowland, V., & Schumann, S. (2026). Perceptions of people radicalised online: Examining the victim‐perpetrator nexus. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 31(1), 1-19.

Breznau, N., Rinke, E. M., Wuttke, A., Adem, M., Adriaans, J., Akdeniz, E., … & Sleegers, W. (2025). The reliability of replications: a study in computational reproductions. Royal Society Open Science, 12(3), 241038.

Jia, Y., & Schumann, S. (2025). Tackling hate speech online: The effect of counter-speech on subsequent bystander behavioral intentions. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 19(1).

Schumann, S., Kenyon, J., & Binder, J. (2025). Identifying distinct types of internet use that predict the likelihood of planning or committing a terrorist attack: Findings from an analysis of individuals convicted on terrorism (-related) charges in England and Wales. Computers in Human Behavior, 168, 108646.

2024

Marques, T. G., Schumann, S., & Mariconti, E. (2024). Positive behaviour interventions in online gaming: a systematic review of strategies applied in other environments. Crime Science, 13(1), 14.

Schumann, S., & Barton, M. (2024). Does Attitudinal Inoculation Confer Resistance to Violent Extremist Propaganda? Assessing Mechanisms, Long‐Term Effects, and the Advantage of Visuals. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 34(6), e2898.

Schumann, S., Clemmow, C., Rottweiler, B., & Gill, P. (2024). Distinct patterns of incidental exposure to and active selection of radicalizing information indicate varying levels of support for violent extremism. PLoS one, 19(2), e0293810.

Schumann, S., & Zohny, H. (2024). Does attitude importance moderate the effects of person-first language? A registered report. Plos one, 19(3), e0300879.

Contact

• Email: s.schumann [@] ucl.ac.uk