Below is a short summary of the opportunities
available. Please visit our brand new website for
more information and to access the application form: http://www.start.umd.edu/careers/internships
.
Global
Terrorism Database (GTD)
The GTD is an
open source, unclassified database including information on terrorist attacks
around the world since 1970 (currently updated through 2012). The database is maintained by researchers at START. The GTD
includes systematic data on domestic as well as international terrorist
incidents that have occurred during this time period and now includes over 113,000 cases. The GTD
intern team is organized into the following themes:
·
GTD: Incident Location and Geographic
Identification
·
GTD: Perpetrator Identification
·
GTD: Target Classification
·
GTD: Understanding the Patterns and
Use of Weapons and Tactics
·
GTD: The Consequences of Terrorism –
Casualties and Outcome
·
GTD: Motives of Terrorism
·
GTD: Coding Intern At
Large (Generalist)
Special Projects
The Special Projects Division
consists of a number of intensive, shorter-term research projects concentrated
on three research topics within the larger study of terrorism and politically
violent non-state actors:
-
Unconventional
Weapons and Technology
-
Extremist
Origins and Trajectories
-
Threat
Management and Influence
Intern positions are available in the
following focus areas:
·
Pinch Hitter &
Advanced Research
·
Terrorist Ideology
·
Organized Crime
·
Individual
Radicalization
·
Risk Assessment and
Threat Analysis
·
Use of CBRN Agents by
Non-State Actors
Geographical Information
Systems (GIS) Analytical
Interns will contribute to
the construction of a global, multimodal transportation network. Tasks
will include analysis and aggregation of large-scale datasets, database
triangulation, manual vector editing, extensive open-source research into traditional
and illicit transportation methods, digital cartography/mapmaking, and
translation of START’s qualitative research into geospatial format.
Interest/experience in global security and/or terrorism is beneficial.
Naval Research
Laboratory Adversarial Modeling and Exploitation Office
Two internships
are available with AMX onsite at their offices in Washington DC. The AMX has a
number of ongoing research projects related to counter-terrorism, behavior
detection, law enforcement, crime analysis, and geospatial analysis. The use of
information by law enforcement, often called data driven policing, is an ever
evolving and expanding field.
·
Behavioral Indicators of Gun and Drug
Carrying
·
System Engineering Analysis &
Support
·
Statistical Analysis & Modeling
Support
·
GIS Analytical
Communications
and Research Transition Support
START communications and
transition team is seeking interns to assist with START’s communication
activities and products. Interns’, responsibilities will vary but may include:
Writing and editing press releases and featured stories, planning and attending
events, creating media kits, developing and tracking media lists and monitoring
social media.
Dataverse
START is
continuing to develop the Terrorism Data Archive Dataverse. Interns for this
project will learn about terrorism-related data through archiving datasets and
reading over documentation. Interns will serve as Assistant Editors and would
be responsible for preparing data for archiving onto the START Dataverse.
Depending upon the dataset, there will also be opportunities to create
Codebooks and add labels and values to the data. Interns will receive training
in the archiving process.
Government Actions in
Terror Environments (GATE)
Recent research suggests that
governments have a vast set of policy tools at their disposal vis-à-vis
terrorist groups, and that pure reliance on repressive policies can be
counterproductive. While policymakers increasingly recognize the importance of
non-military counterterrorism tools in addition to military ones, it is not yet
known which type of government actions are effective; and when carrots might be
more effective than sticks in defeating terrorist groups. This is a unique
opportunity to better understand the terrorist conflict in the US and across
specific regions of the world and to get a unique view of how governments deal
with those conflicts.
Risk
Communications Project
Government, non-profits, and
other organizations rely on public communication to deliver important messages
to various audiences. Professional communicators today use social scientific
research to improve this process, and START’s research teams have several
current and upcoming communication projects that address current research
questions. Risk communication is important for delivering messages about
impending storms, terrorist attacks, public health crises, and more. Interns
working on this team will support several ongoing research projects as well as
new projects.
START/State
Department Terrorist Organizations Project Internship
Students will
gather and analyze statistics on terrorist organizations over time. Projects
will include collecting the number and type of attacks over time, looking at trends,
and possibly even modeling group capacity out into the future. Interns will
also provide assistance in researching open source information on the
leadership of some groups for possible future designations.
Interns will be
co-supervised by researchers at the University of Maryland and by project leads
at the State Department. The State Department leads will set and give feedback
on tasks. Interns will be based at START’s offices on the University of
Maryland campus.
Education Research
Interns on this team will assist with analyzing the real
world skills gained through START education and education transition programs.
Research will focus on growth assessment and skill development in
internships as well as development of gameification and simulation based
learning in traditional classrooms.
Terrorism Propaganda
Analysis
The nature of the project is
analysis of several hundred transcripts of terrorist propaganda videos produced
by Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda affiliate groups. One aspect of the project will be
somewhat descriptive in that we hope to learn: 1) what the message of the video
transcript is (e.g. to defend the prophet, to prevent future grievances, to
promote jihad, etc.) as well as 2) how the message is conveyed including the
type of persuasive attempt used (rational vs. emotional) and 3) who the target
audience is. The coding manual taps into each of these contents. The next step
of the project, which will occur after all of the transcripts are coded, will
examine 4) if the target audience, the message, or the frequency of these tapes
have a discernible pattern, and 5) if these patterns change over time. The
final aspect of this project includes analyzing the rhetoric and persuasion
techniques used in the transcripts and testing the same messages, both in the
US and abroad.
Why choose an
internship at START?
·
Experience working with a large team of
dynamic and experienced researchers.
·
Exposure to cutting edge theories and methods.
·
Deepen your understanding of current issues in
terrorism and homeland security.
·
Work on projects of immediate interest to the
practitioner and policy community.
·
Hone and develop a range of transferable
skills attractive to future employers.
·
Opportunity to work with and meet other
students and researchers with similar interests.
·
Enrichment activities offering wide
opportunities for learning and personal growth, schedule includes simulations,
career presentations and research talks.
·
Mentorship from START staff and researchers in a successful professional environment.
·
Internships can be undertaken for academic
credit (depending on approval from your institution and department).
General
requirements
Applicants for
all internships must:
·
Have a good academic record.
·
Demonstrate an interest in
the subject matter.
·
Be able to complete their
internship work hours on site at START.
·
Agree to attend orientation
and training.
·
Submit an application by the
deadline, all application packets must include:
o A complete application for the correct semester (available at http://www.start.umd.edu/careers/internships
),
o One page resume,
o Cover letter,
o Writing sample,
o Unofficial transcripts from most recent
institution.
Each project may
have additional requirements, including minimum credit hours, preferred majors
and compulsory meeting times. For specific requirements and information
visit: www.start.umd.edu.
How to apply
Application
deadline Fall 2014:
Priority Date: midnight
Sunday June 8th (Please note this will be the final deadline for
some projects, as noted on our website. All international students must apply
by the priority deadline in order to help ensure that appropriate paperwork is
completed in time for start of the program.)
Final Deadline: midnight
Sunday June 22nd
Applicants should visit www.start.umd.edu/careers/ for access to the application system and
instructions.
For more
information about the projects, requirements and for the application form
visit: http://www.start.umd.edu/careers/internships
