Mia Bloom

Mia M. Bloom (born 1968) is a Canadian academic and author.

She is currently professor of Communication at Georgia State University. Prior to this appointment, Bloom was an associate professor of international studies at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA and a fellow at the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State.

Bloom has written two books - Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror, a study on suicide terrorism and Bombshell: Women and Terrorism.

With research specialties in ethnic conflict, rape in war, and child soldiers, Bloom was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations from 2003-2008. Bloom is known for her work on suicide terrorism, women and terrorism, children in terrorist groups, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Boko Haram in Nigeria, radicalization of European/American Muslims, and militant women during "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

Bloom has a PhD in political science from Columbia University, a Master's in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a Bachelors from McGill University in Russian, Islamic studies and Middle East Studies. She completed a year in the overseas program at Tel Aviv University and a semester at the Arab Language Institute (ALI) at the American University of Cairo. She has held research or teaching appointments at Rutgers, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, and McGill Universities and speaks eight languages. She regularly appears on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CBC and CTV and has been interviewed by Jim Lehrer for PBS, Ted Koppel for Nightline, and Jesse Pearson for MTV. Bloom analyzed the changing role of women and terrorism in a TEDxPSU talk in December 2011.

Bombshell is published in the US by the University of Pennsylvania Press and in the UK by Hurst. Bloom is writing a book on children's involvement in violent extremism and the growing exploitation of children by terrorist networks in Pakistan and the MENA region entitled "Small Arms: Children and Terror" with Dr. John G. Horgan for Cornell University Press and articles on the strategic use of rape for recruitment by violent extremist organisations.