Professor James Forest, Ph.D. serves as the program director for the UMass Lowell Graduate Program in Security Studies. He has published over 20 books and teaches graduate courses on terrorism and counterterrorism, homeland security, and contemporary security studies. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Perspectives on Terrorism, and has previously served as a Senior Fellow for the U.S. Joint Special Operations University (2010-2019) and as a faculty member of the United States Military Academy (2001-2010), six of those years as Director of Terrorism Studies (in the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point) and three years as Assistant Dean for Academic Assessment

Professor Arie Perliger, Ph.D. has been engaged in extensive study of issues related to terrorism and political violence for over 20 years. His studies appeared in seven books and monographs, and in numerous articles and book chapters and were cited in more than 1,000 academic texts. Perliger was also engaged in training practitioners from various agencies such as the FBI, CIA, and ICE, and has provided professional briefings to high-ranking officials from the government and military such as the Secretary of the Army, Army Chief of Staff, and SOCOM, AFRICOM, NORTHCOM and JSOC commanders. Prof. Perliger is also engaged in informing the public via contributions to various media platforms. His articles/interviews appeared, among others, in the NY Times, BBC and Newsweek.

Associate Professor Neil Shortland, Ph.D. is Director of the UMass Lowell Center for Terrorism and Security Studies. He has published several books and journal articles, and is the recipient of several major research grant awards from the US Department of Homeland Security, US Department of Defense, US Department of State, and UK Ministry of Defense. In addition to his scholarly expertise in terrorism and counterterrorism, his research also focuses on military decision-making, psychology and risk assessment.

To learn more about all the program's faculty, visit the Meet Our Faculty webpage.