thom curtis, phd

Thom Curtis, Ph.D., is a professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo where he has taught since 1995. He is also a licensed psychotherapist and certified disaster mental health specialist.

 His research and much of his teaching has focused on psychological and sociological impacts of disasters and terrorism.  Dr. Curtis recently spent two summers in Europe collecting data on radicalization of Muslim communities and has traveled to Israel four times since 2006 to conduct terrorism-related research.  Additionally, he is lead investigator on two projects regarding homegrown terrorism.   The first is the development of a database of United States citizens who have conducted radical Islamist terrorism activities.  The second is on the potential of the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty movement evolving toward a more violent approach for accomplishing its goals.

Dr. Curtis has published dozens of articles detailing his research on disasters and terrorism.  He has been invited to present his findings at numerous conferences in the United States, Europe and Israel including the International Institute for Counter Terrorism, the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Counseling Association, the International Academy of Linguistics, Behavioral and Social Sciences, the University of South Dakota Disaster Mental Health Institute, the International Social Sciences Research Conference, and Rocky Mountain Disaster Mental Health Institute.