1. Scott Atran was born on February 6,1952 and is an American-French cultural anthropologist who is Emeritus Director of Research in Anthropology at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Paris, Research Professor at the University of Michigan, and cofounder of ARTIS International and of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Oxford University.
Scott Atran has studied and written about terrorism, violence, religion, indigenous environmental management and the cross-cultural foundations of biological classification; and he has done fieldwork with terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists, as well as political leaders and Native American peoples.
Scott Atran received his BA from Columbia College, MA from Johns Hopkins University, and PhD in anthropology from Columbia University.
Scott Atran is emeritus research director in anthropology at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and member of the Jean Nicod Institute at the Ecole normale superieure.
Scott Atran is research professor of public policy and psychology at the University of Michigan, founding fellow of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Oxford University, and cofounder of ARTIS International.
Scott Atran was elected as a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Scott Atran has experimented on the ways scientists and ordinary people categorize and reason about nature, on the evolutionary psychology and cognitive science of religion, and on the limits of rationality in understanding and managing deep-seated cultural and political conflict.
Scott Atran's work has been widely published internationally in the popular press, and in scientific journals in a variety of disciplines.
Scott Atran was an early critic of US intervention in Iraq and of deepening involvement in Afghanistan.
Scott Atran has been a staunch opponent of political attempts to eliminate government funding for social science, arguing that it is critical to the national interest, including innovation and security in business, technology, medicine and defense.
Scott Atran has published research on the limits of rational choice in political and cultural conflict.
Scott Atran has collaborated on research on how political negotiations could be made more likely to produce agreement.
Scott Atran has worked with the United Nations Security Council and has been engaged in conflict negotiations in the Middle East.
Scott Atran has [ ] found that suicide terrorists can be recruited without these direct incentives.
Scott Atran argues that we dismiss ISIS at our peril, and that in fact, we do much to promote its growth.
In 2017, Scott Atran co-authored a groundbreaking paper with Angel Gomez, Lucia Lopez-Rodriguez, Hammad Sheikh, Jeremy Ginges, Lydia Wilson, Hoshang Waziri, Alexandra Vazquez, and Richard Davis.