Mehr Latif is a Post-doctoral Associate at the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on issues of conflict and extremism, including the study of violent extremism and alternative dispute resolution in Pakistan; the study of radicalization and violence within the United States; as well as conflict prevention in Cambodia. At the University of Pittsburgh, she has led and contributed to research on the micro-dimensions of radicalization that shape people’s trajectory through radical groups as well as their propensity for violence. A recent publication on this issue, Why White Supremacist Women Become Disillusioned, and Why They Leave,” co-authored with Kathleen Blee, Matthew DeMichele, Pete Simi, and Shayna Alexander was awarded The Sociological Quarterly Article Award for 2019- 2020. In the coming year, with seed funding from the Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grants competition, she will be developing qualitative research structures on the flow of misinformation within social media to analyze dynamics of hate, trust and mistrust, belief, and persuasion
Dr. Latif has worked on conflict prevention programs for over a decade, contributing to policy research and assessment and the design of countering violent extremism programming for various agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of State, and the World Bank. At present, she is supporting the design of a transitional justice program in Afghanistan. Mehr also led a research initiative to assess the drivers of conflict in Pakistan for USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in 2017; evaluated a religious freedom project in Pakistan for the State Department in 2015; and has advised the World Bank on its programming in Cambodia and Kyrgyzstan on conflict prevention and governance more broadly since 2007.