Rate My Professor Brian McQuinn

Dr. Brian McQuinn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Regina and Co-Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Conflict. He holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, awarded in 2015. Prior to joining the University of Regina, he served as a Global Advisor to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. Over more than two decades, his work has included supporting peace talks in Nepal and Timor-Leste, engaging with armed groups in South Sudan and Nigeria, and conducting nine months of ethnographic fieldwork with armed groups during the 2011 uprising in Libya.

McQuinn co-founded the Online Traces of Conflict project in collaboration with the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University, focusing on civil war dynamics, the role of social media in conflict, and the application of machine learning to the study of violence and health in conflict settings. He co-leads the United Nations course on the analysis and engagement of armed groups. His research interests encompass civil war, right-wing extremism, social media, artificial intelligence, and human-wildlife conflict. He co-edited the book The Libyan Revolution and its Aftermath (Oxford University Press, 2015) and has authored or co-authored numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, including publications in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, International Interactions, and Biological Conservation. His work has also appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, and Nature. McQuinn is on sabbatical from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.