Dr. Stellan Vinthagen is professor of sociology, a scholar-activist, and the Inaugural Endowed Chair in the Study of Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Resistance at the University of Massachusetts. He is also editor of the Journal of Resistance Studies, co-editor of the Rowman & Littlefield book series on Resistance Studies, co-leader of the Resistance Studies Group at University of Gothenburg, Sweden and co-founder of the International Resistance Studies Network, as well as a council member of War Resisters International, and academic advisor to the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC).
His research is focused on resistance, power, social movements, nonviolent action, conflict transformation and social change. He has since 1980 been an educator, organizer and activist in several countries, and has participated in more than 30 nonviolent civil disobedience actions, for which he has served a total of more than one year in prison. One of his books is A Theory of Nonviolent Action – How Civil Resistance Works (2015).