We at the International Center for 9/11 Justice are pleased to announce the publication of a research agenda that will guide our research efforts in the months and years ahead.
We’re also delighted and honored to announce the appointment of Dr. Piers Robinson to the new position of research director and simultaneously to the position of co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies.
Research Agenda
The purpose of the research agenda is to clearly set forth the broadened scope of the Journal of 9/11 Studies and the areas in which the Center is aiming to advance the body of 9/11 knowledge.
The research agenda is effectively an invitation to researchers everywhere to consider the Journal of 9/11 Studies and the Center as a venue for the publication of their scholarly or investigative work.
While a large body of knowledge has been built over the past 22 years, it is possible that further evidentiary and analytical breakthroughs will be the key to bringing about 9/11 justice. Thus, the journal and the Center are committed to producing new, groundbreaking research.
Welcoming Dr. Piers Robinson
Piers’ new role as IC911 research director and as co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies marks the beginning of an exciting new phase in our mission to establish an accurate account of the 9/11 events.
Piers’ appointment will enable the Center to have one staff member dedicated entirely to fostering new research — both by members of the Center and by the worldwide community of citizen investigators and academics still researching 9/11 and 9/11-related issues.
His presence will also increase the capacity and broaden the scope of the Journal of 9/11 Studies — where our longtime co-editor, Kevin Ryan, has expertise in the physical sciences and in many details of the 9/11 crimes and where Piers will now bring his expertise in the social sciences and his long track record in academic publishing.
Piers’ Background
Dr. Piers Robinson has 25 years of experience researching and writing about international politics, communications, and propaganda.
He obtained his PhD at the University of Bristol in 2000, authoring a ground-breaking study The CNN Effect: the myth of news, foreign policy and intervention, published in 2002 by Routledge. His first academic post in 1999 was as lecturer in Political Communication at the University of Liverpool. From 2005 to 2016 he was lecturer, then senior lecturer, in International Politics at the University of Manchester. In 2016, he was appointed full professor and chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
Since leaving Sheffield in 2019, Piers has been involved in the development of a number of initiatives relating to the study of propaganda, including the establishment of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies, the Working Group on Syria, Media and Propaganda, the Working Group on Propaganda and the 9/11 Global ‘War on Terror’, and, in 2022, the online journal Propaganda in Focus. He is currently working alongside Ambassador José Bustani (first Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons), Dr. Hans-C. von Sponeck, and Professor Richard Falk as part of the Berlin Group 21, which is representing issues raised by OPCW scientists regarding the manipulation of chemical weapons investigations in Syria.
Across the course of his academic career, Piers has published many articles in leading academics journals, including the Journal of Communication, Review of International Studies, Political Science Quarterly, European Journal of Communication, Political Studies, and Critical Sociology. In addition, he is lead author of the article “Pockets of Resistance: British news media, war and theory in the 2003 invasion of Iraq” (Manchester University Press, 2010) and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Media, Conflict and Security (2016). He has also served as an editor of Critical Studies in Terrorism (Routledge) and on the advisory board of a number of academic journals. His academic publications can be viewed at Google Scholar and Researchgate.
During his career, Piers has received many invitations to lecture and advise. He has lectured at the NATO Defense College in Rome and at the St. Cyer military academy in France and has given presentations/briefings at the University of Oxford to UK senior military commanders and diplomats. He has given public talks for Stop the War Coalition, Frome Stop the War, and Media on Trial. He is also active on X (formerly Twitter) and writes on Substack.
In the last four years, both 9/11 and COVID-19 have become a central research concern for Piers. In particular, he has analyzed the propaganda surrounding these events and their role as “structural deep events” (a term coined by Peter Dale Scott). In 2022, for example, he was invited to present at the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), examining the COVID-19 response and the role of propaganda and media. His work on COVID-19 led to his involvement as an executive committee member of PANDA (formerly Pandata and Analytics). And, since 2023, he has served as a board member and, as of January 2024, as research director of the International Center for 9/11 Justice.
