Henriette Esholdt
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Henriette Frees Esholdt’s research focuses on militant Islamism. More specifically, she specializes in women in Islamist terrorist organizations such as ISIS and has particular expertise in open-source social media studies and ethnographic approaches to the study of Islamist radicalization and terrorism. She is also interested in the crime–terror nexus, honour-based violence, disinformation campaigns, and psychological defence.
Esholdt is Programme Director of the Master’s Programme in Conflict, Risk and International Security (CRIS), launching in autumn 2026. She teaches in the areas of Security Studies, Terrorism Studies, Risk Management, and War and Changing World Orders.
Previous research projects:
“After the Caliphate: Mobilization of Women and Men in the Salafi-Jihadi Environment in Sweden.” Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE), research project (2021–2023), 3,900,000 SEK. Co-applicant with Professor Marco Nilsson as Principal Investigator.
“The Attractions of Violence-Promoting Islamist Extremism: An Investigation of Masculinity and Femininity.” Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE), Junior Research Project (2017–2020), 4,045,000 SEK. Principal Investigator with co-applicants Associate Professor Mehmet Ümit Necef, University of Southern Denmark, and Professor Malin Åkerström, Lund University.
Biography
Henriette Frees Esholdt is Associate Professor (Docent) of Sociology, a terrorism researcher, and Senior Lecturer in Global Studies specializing in Security Studies.
She received her PhD in Sociology from Lund University in 2015. Prior to that, she earned both an MA (2008) and a BA (2005) in Sociology from the University of Copenhagen. In 2025, she qualified as Docent (Associate Professor) in Sociology at the University of Gothenburg.
To further develop her expertise, Esholdt returned to the classroom a few years ago to pursue a Master’s degree in Intelligence and Cyber Studies, offered as a collaborative programme between the University of Southern Denmark and the Royal Danish Defence College, which she expects to complete in 2026.