Department: Intelligence Analysis 

Areas of expertise:

• Human Rights and War Crimes
• International Criminal Law
• Central and Eastern Europe
• The Role of Social Media in Democratic Backsliding
• Women in Intelligence

Jennifer Davis is an associate professor of intelligence analysis whose research focuses on the role of social media in democratic backsliding across the European Union, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe. She leverages insights from Robert Putnam’s work on civil society as featured in "Making Democracy Work" and "Bowling Alone," applying his insights to social media and the rapidly emerging trust gap in modern society. Her argument is that social media helps people to feel as though they are connected, leading them to engage less and less in social and interpersonal activities. However, online interactions do not generate the same level of trust that in person engagements do, contributing to the growing trust gap as online social connections replace in person ones. These factors lead to democratic backsliding, as trust in others is essential for any working democracy. She has presented her research on these themes for the American Committee on Foreign Relations, the International Studies Association and across the intelligence community.

Davis’s research expertise includes human rights and war crimes; the role of women in intelligence; Europe and Eurasia; and democracy and democratization efforts. She is also the faculty advisor for the Women in Intelligence and National Security student group at JMU, and the prior chair of the same organization at the National Intelligence University in Washington, D.C.

Her previous experience includes serving as an associate professor and associate director of research at NIU.

In 2022, Davis worked on a government task force focusing on efforts concerning war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine. From 2022–2023, she also worked at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Criminal Justice on cases concerning international criminal accountability. In her role as special advisor to the Office of Global Criminal Justice, Davis directly supported Ambassador Beth Van Schaack’s team researching the Darfur genocide and other alleged atrocities and war crimes around the world. She helped to convene a panel of experts to revisit the 2002-2005 genocide and compiled extensive research and information to provide to the International Criminal Court for its ongoing case against former President Omar al-Bashir.

Davis holds a doctorate and a master's degrees from the George Washington University in political science, a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, in French and political science. She completed a program in International Studies and Intelligence in 2014 from Cambridge University, Pembroke College.

She is an active officer in the Human Rights Section of the International Studies Association (ISA), a prior chair and vice chair for the International Law Section, and served on ISA’s executive board from 2018-2020. Davis was a 2014 ODNI Exceptional Analyst Fellow and also won the John Gannon Award for Faculty Research in 2014. She received the Director’s Award of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2018 from Lt. General Vincent R. Stewart, USMC, and also was awarded the National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, for her work as an advisor on the Intelligence Community’s Environmental Security Working Group.

Media contact: Eric Gorton, gortonej@jmu.edu.