Quintan wiktorowicz biography

Quintan Wiktorowicz has had a diverse 20+ year career spanning academia, senior government and intelligence positions, the world of startups and innovation.
Quintan received his Ph.D.
Quintan Wiktorowicz is an assistant professor of international studies at Rhodes College and the author of a number of books that contribute to American readers.

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Quintan Wiktorowicz

Quintan is is the co-founder and managing partner of Affinis Labs, an award-winning social innovation firm. He previously served in two senior positions at the White House, where he planned, directed, and coordinated national security engagement policies that leveraged diplomacy, communications, development assistance, and community outreach. During his tenure, he established the first director positions for national security innovation and championed the use of open innovation, human-centered design, and principles of entrepreneurship to catalyze new approaches to national security. Prior to joining the White House, Quintan developed ground breaking counter-radicalization initiatives for the U.S. Government. Before his government service, he was one of America’s leading academics on the Muslim World, publishing three peer-reviewed books, an award winning audio book, and 33 articles and book chapters. Quintan received his Ph.D. in political science from American University, studied Islam in Cairo with an al-Azhar shaykh, and conducted fieldwork on violent ex

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Quintan Wiktorowicz has had a diverse 20+ year career spanning academia, senior government and intelligence positions, the world of startups and innovation, and private equity. He currently is an investor and entrepreneur working in ethical financial services. Previously, he served as the Chief Operating Officer of Frost Capital, a private equity firm based in Palo Alto, and as the Managing Partner of Affinis Labs, an award-winning social innovation firm that Thomson Reuters calls “a key driving force behind developing the Digital Islamic Economy.” Affinis Labs was acquired by Frost Capital in 2019. He also was the co-owner of Zabihah, the world’s #1 halal food site, and co-founder of Zakatify, an app developed in collaboration with PayPal Giving Fund that empowers charitable giving. He served in two senior positions at the White House, where he was responsible for global engagement, national security innovation, and public private partnerships to support national security. Prior to his government service, Quintan was a professor at Rhodes College, Dartmouth College, and Shippensb

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Cognitive opening

A cognitive opening is a concept in social movement theory defined as a moment in which a catalytic event, sometimes a personal crisis or socioeconomic pressure, makes a person receptive to new ways of thinking because life changes challenge previously accepted beliefs, prompting a re-assessment of world views.^[1]^[2]

It is described as a potential stage towards radicalization.^[3]^[4] The catalytic event can be personal, such as a death in the family or a crime,^[5] or broader, such as being confronted by discrimination, socioeconomic crisis, or political repression directly as an individual or as a member of a group.^[6]

The origin of the concept is credited to Quintan Wiktorowicz's 2005 book, Radical Islam Rising: Muslim Extremism in the West.^[7]

References

^Trip, Simona; Bora, Carmen Hortensia; Marian, Mihai; Halmajan, Angelica; Drugas, Marius Ioan (6 March 2019). "Psychological Mechanisms Involved in Radicalization and Extremism. A Rational Emotive Behavioral Conceptuali