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Battling Terrorism Through Research

December 01, 2014 American Studies | College of Arts and Humanities | Communication | English | Arabic

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ARHU students intern with a Department of Homeland Security terrorism research program at University of Maryland-based Center of Excellence

Ryan Marchini is only a University of Maryland senior but he’s already heavily ensconced in the world of global terrorism.

As an intern with National Consortium for Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism—referred to as START—Marchini’s job is to help add incidents of attacks into a growing database and plot those events onto an online, interactive map. 

Marchini, a history major, is one of eight students from the College of Arts and Humanities working alongside research and policy experts during the fall semester at START. Based at UMD, START is part of a network in a consortium of universities sponsored in part by the Department of Homeland Security conducting research to address challenges to a variety of potential threats.  About 90 interns from 16 higher education institutions are working with START this semester in areas including communications, propaganda analysis, incident location and identification, community resilience and advanced research. Fifty six of the program’s students come from UMD.

Other student participants from ARHU include Laura Gonzalez,  (public relations), ’15, Rachael Romano, (public relations), ’16, Maya Suero, (English), ‘15, Amielle Kutzen, (American studies), ’17, Joshua Nesselrodt, (public relations), ’16, James Halverson, (military and diplomatic history), ’13, and Anna Palvos, (Arabic studies), ‘15.

Marchini said he’s learned about mapping software, including geographic information systems, or GIS. While about 80 percent of the incidents he’s been plotting are related to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Marchini’s said the work he’s doing has opened his eyes to the number of attacks that “happen outside of terrorism hotspots” and given him a “broader perspective of the world.”

In addition to projects, students also attend enrichment sessions intended to further their education and assist in their careers. Sessions include lectures by researchers on fieldwork abroad or how to receive clearances from the federal government. START internships are offered in fall, spring and summer for credit. Undergraduates and graduates are eligible to apply. For more information, visit the START internship page.

START Programs that ARHU students are working on include writing features, press releases and monitoring social media to help lead communications strategies; identifying, analyzing and coding terrorist attacks to include on an interactive map; propaganda and persuasion technique analysis, risk communications and community resilience and other special projects requiring advanced research methods.

 About the University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities

The College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland is home to over 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students, 14 academic departments, five independent research centers and over 322 tenured and tenure-track faculty. The college connects students with expert scholars who teach how to investigate, reflect and analyze the world around them. Through interdisciplinary approaches to the arts and humanities, students develop into global problem solvers and creative innovators who thrive in a world of rapidly evolving opportunities. For more information, click here.

About the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is supported in part by the Science and Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through a Center of Excellence program based at the University of Maryland. START uses state‐of‐the‐art theories, methods and data from the social and behavioral sciences to improve understanding of the origins, dynamics and social and psychological impacts of terrorism. For more information, contact START at infostart@start.umd.edu or visit www.start.umd.edu.