Terrorism Experts from Around the World Come to Boston

09/16/2014

Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, UMass Lowell, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu, and  Crystal Valencia, UMass Boston, 617-287-5383 or Crystal.Valencia@umb.edu

* Media Advisory *

Terrorism experts from around the world come to Boston

International conference to feature top researchers, practitioners

Wednesday, Sept. 17 through Friday, Sept. 19

What:  The Society for Terrorism Research’s 8th Annual International Conference will bring a field of experts to Boston to build on the important roles research and collaboration between academia, agencies and communities play in combating terrorism around the world.

Programs on the first of three days include using social media and drone attacks to counter terrorism and how women and children are being used in terrorism. Panels will feature the FBI National Counterterrorism Center, the Massachusetts State Police and other agencies. A full schedule is available at www.societyforterrorismresearch.org/annual-conference.

The conference is hosted by UMass Lowell’s Center for Terrorism and Security Studies and UMass Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences and the Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation.

Speakers are scheduled to include:

• Jessica E. Stern, a fellow in the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former National Security Council staff member, who will deliver the keynote address;
• J.M. Berger, author, analyst and consultant on al-Qaida and U.S. extremism;
• Marc Sageman, senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, consultant to governments on al-Qaida and other groups, and forensic and clinical psychiatrist;
• Mia Bloom, UMass Lowell professor of security studies and an authority on suicide terrorism, women and children in terrorism and group dynamics of radicalization;
• John G. Horgan, director of the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies, a member of the research working group of the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and an applied psychologist with expertise in terrorist behavior;
• Max Taylor, a forensic psychologist whose research includes psychological factors in the development of terrorism and links between crime analysis and terrorist behavior;
• James J.F. Forest, director of the graduate program in security studies at UMass Lowell and a senior fellow with the Joint Special Operations University whose work includes research on emerging terrorist threats, insurgencies and transnational criminal networks. 

Where:  University of Massachusetts Boston, Campus Center, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston