Stephen Cowden has recently begun work as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Gloucestershire and also works at the Open University. Alongside his research in Social Work and Critical Pedagogy, he also writes about Religious Fundamentalism, Extremism and Radicalisation. He was one of the editors of Feminist Dissent Issue 4 on ‘Prevent’ (2019) and wrote on Social Work and Prevent for that issue. He is also co-founder of the British Association of Social Work (BASW) Special Interest Group for Preventing Violent Extremism.