2021
I’m Sorry I Called You a Terrorist
Charles Kurzman, “I’m Sorry I Called You a Terrorist,” October 29, 2021. Just before the pandemic, a young woman came to my office and asked what I knew about her father. “Is my father a terrorist?” More…
Al-Qaida, Islamic State Group Struggle for Recruits
Charles Kurzman, “Al-Qaida, Islamic State Group Struggle for Recruits,” The Conversation, September 3, 2021. Al-Qaida was planning two sets of terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. On Sept. 11, 2021, as Americans commemorate and mourn the lives lost that Tuesday morning 20 years ago, it is important to remember the second plot as well – the attacks that didn’t happen. As strange as it may sound, revolutionary Islamist groups suffer from recruitment problems as any other organization does. More…
Breakthrough Infections in Less-Vaccinated States
Charles Kurzman, “Breakthrough Infections in Less-Vaccinated States,” August 17, 2021. Breakthrough infections are more than twice as common in less-vaccinated states than in more-vaccinated states, according to a massive survey by the Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University.
Infections among the unvaccinated are almost twice as common in the 10 least-vaccinated states, as compare with the 10 most-vaccinated states.
In Louisiana, where more than a quarter of respondents said they were not vaccinated, 11 out of 1,000 unvaccinated adults reported that they had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous two weeks, compared with 4 out of 1,000 vaccinated Louisianans.
The infection rate for vaccinated Louisianans is higher than the rate for unvaccinated respondents in Maryland, where only one tenth of respondents said they were unvaccinated. More…
Occupational Shortages After the Vaccine Rapture
If Covid-19 vaccines are deadly, as some conspiracy theorists claim, then America’s occupational structure may look a little different after the vaccine rapture. For example, there are more than 200 preschool and K-12 teachers among every 10,000 vaccinated Americans, but fewer than 100 among every 10,000 unvaccinated Americans, according to a large-scale survey of adult Facebook users conducted by the Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University. More…
Masked and Vaccine-Hesitant
According to a survey of U.S. Facebook users conducted by the Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University, most vaccine-hesitant respondents reported that they wore a mask outdoors all or most of the time. More…
The ACSS and Data Preservation for the Public Good
Charles Kurzman, “The ACSS and Data Preservation for the Public Good,” presentation on panel, “Knowledge for the Public Good,” Arab Council for the Social Sciences, Beirut, Lebanon (online), April 10, 2021. Overview of the ACSS Dataverse, a data archive for social science research on the Arab region, which aims to preserve materials for the benefit of future generations of researchers. A video of the panel is archived on Facebook.
The Global Wave of Constitutional Revolutions, 1905-1915
Adapted from Charles Kurzman, Democracy Denied, 1905-1915 (Harvard University Press, 2008).
How Much Does Working at Home Lower Covid-19 Infection Rates?
According to a daily survey of more than 50,000 Facebook users conducted by the Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University, people working outside the home became significantly more vulnerable to Covid-19 in Fall 2020. But recently released survey results, aggregated by self-reported race and Hispanic ethnicity, show that working at home reduced infection rates only for respondents who self-identified as white and non-Hispanic. Among respondents who self-identified as Hispanic, or as Black and non-Hispanic, infection rates for people who worked at home and people who worked outside the home were higher and not statistically different from one another. More…
Mask-Wearing and Biden Vote-Share, by County
Counties where more people reported wearing masks in October 2020 were more likely to vote for Joseph Biden for president in November 2020.
Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2020
Charles Kurzman, “Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2020,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 14, 2021. Seven Muslim-Americans were arrested or killed during alleged involvement with violent extremism in 2020, the lowest total since 2008. This continues the decline since the peak of 90 cases in 2015. Islamic extremism played almost no role in the considerable unrest that the United States experienced in 2020. The total number of fatalities in the United States from Muslim-American violent extremism since 9/11 remained at 141. Over this same period, there have been more than 309,000 murders in the United States. More…