National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses
to Terrorism
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and
Responses to Terrorism (START), a DHS Center of Excellence
based at the University of Maryland
We are looking for interns with a wide array of skills and
majors (including but not limited to: Criminology,
Communications, Government, International Relations, Public
Policy, History, GIS, Geography, Economics, English,
Mathematics, Psychology, Languages and Statistics). Students
from any institution may apply and we will consider current and
recently graduated undergraduates and graduates as well. In
addition to the experience gained during their internship, interns
will also receive mentoring, training and are able to participate in
a calendar of professional development activities. START is also
willing to work with academic institutions to enable students to
undertake our internships for credit. Our internships are unpaid
and students must be able to undertake their work hours at
START at the University of Maryland College Park, unless stated
in the internship description.
Below is a short summary of the opportunities available. Please
visit our 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 2013). 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 Geospatial Intelligence
(GEOINT)
•
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: Coding Intern At Large (Generalist)
Unconventional Weapons and Technology
The Unconventional Weapons and Technology Division consists
of a number of intensive, shorter-term research projects
concentrated on research topics within the larger study of
terrorism and politically violent non-state actors:
Intern positions are available in the following focus areas:
•
Unconventional Weapons Internship
•
Open Source Intelligence on Organized Crime and
R/N Trafficking
•
Behavioral Indicators of Insider Threats
•
Countering Emerging Proliferation Threats in India:
Terror-Crime Nexus and Trafficking Trends
•
Cyber Intelligence Collection & Assessment (Eyes of
Victory)
Communications
START communications 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.
Risk Communications and Community Resilience
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.
Dataverse
START is continuing to develop the Terrorism Data Archive
Dataverse. Interns for this project will learn about terrorismrelated 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.
Strategic Military Assessment Research and Transition
(SMART) Projects
SMART projects focus on the relationships of violent non-state
actors (terrorist, pirates, etc) and state authorities to analyze
their patterns of interaction and strategies of violence.
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.
TEVUS Handbook and Simulation Internship
The Terrorism and Extremist Violence in the United States
(TEVUS) Database integrates existing and new open-source
data sets to facilitate more robust and sophisticated analyses of
the behaviors, operations, and activities of violent extremists
within the United States.
Understanding Domestic Radicalization
This internship is part of the Profiles of Individual Radicalization
in the United States (PIRUS) project, a three-year project which
seeks to establish an empirical basis to investigate the
underlying mechanisms and processes for individual
radicalization in the United States. Previous intern teams
researched information on radicalized individuals and entered it
into a dataset; wrote case studies on radicalized individuals;
performed quality-control checks on the dataset; performed
structured qualitative analysis; and assisted project staff in
conducting analysis on the quantitative data.
Salafi Narrative/Counter-Narratives of Violence and NonViolence
Interns will gain experience and expertise in a cutting edge area
of interest to terrorism studies researchers, government
policymakers and CVE practitioners. The opportunity will be
particularly relevant to future employment in law enforcement,
intelligence, and homeland security-related professions.
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:
◦
A complete application for the correct semester
(available at
http://www.start.umd.edu/careers/internships ),
◦
One page resume,
◦
Cover letter,
◦
Writing sample,
◦
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:
http://www.start.umd.edu
How to apply
Application deadline Fall 2015:
Final Deadline: midnight Sunday June 21st
Applicants should visit
http://www.start.umd.edu/careers/internships 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