Curriculum Development Grants

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism emphasizes the importance of translating its investigators’ cutting-edge research on terrorism and responses to terrorism into increased education and training opportunities. As part of this effort, START has issued a series of curriculum development grants over the summers of 2009 and 2010. START plans to begin offering these awards again each summer in 2012.

The grant competition funds faculty members and advanced doctoral students affiliated with START to develop sets of materials that can be incorporated into new and existing courses by both the grant recipient and other members of the START community.

Priorities for START Curriculum Development Grants

Reflection of Cutting-Edge START Research. Curriculum units focus on START-supported research, with the goal of quickly bringing new research findings to the classroom.

Interactivity and Novel Approaches to Teaching. Curriculum units are highly interactive (for instance, an in-class simulation) and emphasize novel approaches to teaching and learning.

Interdisciplinarity. Curriculum units incorporate approaches from multiple academic disciplines and challenge students to engage in critical, cross-disciplinary discourse on problems and/or issues relevant to the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism. Scalability. Curriculum units are scalable to different education levels (e.g., K-12, undergraduate, graduate, executive education) and should be a self-contained unit that instructors can fit into a modular course structure.

Immediacy and Impact. Curriculum units address problems and issues of immediate relevance to national and international policy. As such, curriculum units support START’s mission to train and mentor the next generation of terrorism scholars and analysts, individuals who will be dedicated to research, teaching, and analysis on issues related to the formation and behavior of terrorists and terrorist groups as well as the impacts that the threat of terrorism and terrorist acts hold for individuals, groups, and societies.

Past Awards

2009 CDG recipients include:

• Christine Bevc, PhD Student, Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, "Networks and Preparedness"
• Bidisha Biswas, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Western Washington University, "Online Simulation Modeled on November 2008 Mumbai Attacks"
• Shawn Flanigan, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, San Diego State University, "Conducting Field Research Outside the United States and in Difficult-to-Access Communities"
• Anthony Lemieux, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Purchase College, SUNY, "Modular Approach to Radicalization and Terrorist Motivations"
• Jeffrey Lewis, Lecturer, Department of History, The Ohio State University, "Engaging and Countering the Social and Cultural Mechanisms Used by Organizations to Motivate Suicide Attackers"
• Christine Muller, PhD Student, Department of American Studies, University of Maryland, "What Can Oral Histories Tell Us About September 11?"
• Brian Nussbaum, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Bridgewater State University, "Risk Management and Analytic Techniques"

2010 CDG recipients include:

• Bidisha Biswas, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Western Washington University, "Exploring and Analyzing the Global Terrorism Database"
• Erica Chenoweth, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Wesleyan University, “The Origins of Counterterrorism and the Effectiveness of Counterterrorism Policies”
• Shira Fishman, Faculty Research Associate, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, University of Maryland, “Understanding Terrorist Behavior through Red Team Analysis”
• Christine Muller, PhD Student, Department of American Studies, University of Maryland, “The Notion that the World Changed on September 11”
• R. Karl Rethemeyer, Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration, State University of New York at Albany, “Social Network Analysis for Studying Terrorism”

Future Awards

START plans to offer the Curriculum Development Grant award each summer between 2012 and 2016. An announcement about 2012 awards will be made by February 2012.

Questions can be directed to education@start.umd.edu. Questions can be directed to education@start.umd.edu.

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