Allysa is a Research Fellow in AI Trust and Security whose research sits at the intersections of technology, extremism, and online harms. Her existing work has explored the role manosphere-affiliated communities play in (re)producing male supremacism and misogynist extremism in online environments. Her doctoral research traced the narratives present in the stories posted to several high-profile incel forums, with the aim of uncovering how these stories help legitimise instances of identity-based harm and provide additional knowledge about the pathways into and out of inceldom. She's also interested in understanding how Generative AI can both create and exacerbate online harms, exploring how text- and image-based outputs (re)produce existing structural injustices underpinning hate-based victimisation. Her current research investigates how feminised AI companion apps (specifically those used by cisgender heterosexual men for intimate or romantic relationships) contribute to male supremacist harms, and seeks to uncover whether responsible, human-centred designs might promote expressions of healthy masculinities in human-AI interactions.

Her work has been included in parliamentary evidence on misogynist harms and new forms of extremism, and shared through Policy@Manchester articles, GNET Insights, CREST Security Reviews, and podcast episodes from Tech Against Terrorism and the International Risk Podcast. A critical review of incel-focused research from her doctoral work was recently published in Crime, Media, Culture (2024), with additional publications forthcoming in a special issue of Critical Discourse Studies (2025), the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Violence (2026), Researching Hate (2026), Visual Politics of AI (2027), and the Routledge Companion to Media, Sex, and Sexuality (2027).

Research Networks and Peer Review Work

Allysa is a Fellow at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, contributing to research, outreach, and providing support to early-career researchers through the Institute's mentorship scheme. She's also involved in several working groups and interdisciplinary networks, including:

• Democracy & Trust, Digital Tech & Crime, and AI & Trust clusters within the Centre for Digital Trust and Society (University of Manchester)
• Methods Northwest's ECR Social Media Methods Network (University of Manchester; joint leads with University of Liverpool)
• Strategies for Intersectional Gender Justice, Networked, Action, and Liberation (SIGNAL) Network (University of Waterloo)
• Network Plus for Analytical Behavioural Science in Security and Defence (Lancaster University)
• Reactionary Politics Research Network (University of Bath)
• Next-Gen Terrorism and Political Violence Network (University of St Andrews)
• Conceptualising, Understanding, and Preventing Mixed Forms of Extremism (CUPME) Network (University of Liverpool)
• AHRC Rethinking Research Ethics Network (University of Westminster)
• VOX-Pol Next Generation Network (Swansea University)
• Hub for the Study of Hybrid Communication in Peacebuilding (University of Sheffield)

She is also a peer-reviewer of original research articles and methodological contributions for various journals, including:

• Crime, Media, Culture
• Deviant Behaviour
• Men & Masculinities
• Social Media + Society
• Women's Studies in Communication
• Journal of Gender Studies
• Journal of European Politics and Gender

Allysa's research interests centre on the complex interplays between technology, harm, and violence, with a specific focus on male supremacist and extremist groups operating in the online sphere, the role AI plays in (re)producing identity-based harm, and how technological affordances impact gender-based violence. Alongside this, she's interested in ethical approaches to conducting research in public-facing online spaces, and adopts a reflexive intersectional feminist praxis in her work. 

Allysa has demonstrated teaching expertise in areas related to terrorism and extremism, security studies, and digital research methods. She has previously taught undergraduates on the Trust and Security in a Digital World course offered by Manchester's University College for Interdisciplinary Learning (UCIL), and postgraduates on the MSc in Security and Resilience at the Institute for Security Science and Technology (ISST) at Imperial College London.

Allysa currently supervises undergraduates on the BA Criminology program whose dissertations focus on digital technologies and online harms. She's previously supervised MSc dissertations at Imperial College, with past projects including: 

• Generating Hate: Far-right Exploitation of AI for Hateful Content, Propaganda, and Disinformation (2025)

• Analysing AI’s Role in Political Disinformation, Warfare, and Policy Responses in Europe and the US (2025)

• Supremacist Sisterhoods: Exploring Women's Roles in Far-Right Online Extremism (2024)

• The Impact of CCTV on the Criminal Justice Outcomes of Violence Against Women and Girls (2024)