Purpose | Goals | Schedule | Sleeping/Eating Arrangements

Purpose


We developed the Summer Workshop On Teaching Terrorism (SWOTT) to: 1) offer an intensive short-course on the fundamentals of terrorism; 2) introduce academics to new and innovative techniques utilized to teach terrorism; and 3) provide access to high-level officials working in the intelligence and counter-terrorism fields. The workshop seeks to not only acquaint participants with the current issues that dominate US foreign policy and much of the world’s attention (e.g. weapons of mass destruction and state sponsorship of terrorism), but also promises exploration into the classic works on the subject, many of which were written long before 9/11.


Goals


The Summer Workshop On Teaching about Terrorism (SWOTT) is intended to provide four valuable services to those who participate in the workshop and to the larger community of terrorism scholars. First, the goal is to provide substantive knowledge on terrorism, its intricacies, and its counter-measures. The program seeks to provide individuals with information from multiple sources including high-level government officials, experts on the subject/particular groups, as well as in-depth analysis of classic terrorism studies.

Second, SWOTT plans to cover teaching related issues such as the implementation of active learning techniques in the classroom. Active learning exercises, such as simulation, stimulate learning more than traditional types of lectures, and studies reveal higher retention rates of information using simulation exercises. As a result, this workshop not only teaches its participants about terrorism, it also trains them to successfully teach courses on terrorism. A good teacher and an informed person can be quite different individuals. We wish to produce "informed teachers" from our workshop. A good teacher captures students attention, engages them in such a way that they want to learn, and often gets them to learn without them even realizing it. An individual with great information who does not know how to convey it in a way that is easy to consume is worthless. Academics, in particular, who take part in our program will leave with a better understanding of terrorism and its intricacies and armed with new teaching techniques and resources to relay their knowledge to their students.

Third, the program seeks to improve the quality of academic research in the field. Much of the current work on terrorism is reinventing the wheel, in that many of the scholars now researching terrorism have little appreciation or awareness of the work that precedes it. As a result, the workshop introduces participants to past and present terrorism research programs, quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study terrorism, and current cutting-edge methods to study of terrorism.

Finally, we wish to strengthen the community of scholars who teach and perform research in the field of terrorism. Until recently, this was a very small community and the exclusiveness of the group created a natural bond. However, the number of people interested in terrorism is expanding rapidly. As such, there is a need to provide greater levels of interaction in order to keep this growing community connected. We plan to bring together experts from different academic fields, public service, and private organizations to create connections that bridge those cleavages and improve our ability to understand and confront terrorism.

Schedule

Experts from different backgrounds (academic, government, private industry) will serve as guest speakers during the four 90-minute sessions on five of the days. There will also be a field-trip to Oklahoma City (which includes visits to both the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), as well as enjoying dinner on your own at one of the many restaurants in Bricktown). There are also opportunities for participants to interact with many of the speakers during lunches and dinners.


Sleeping/Eating Arrangements


As indicated above, most meals will be provided by the workshop, and snacks/drinks will be available throughout the day. Participants from out of town stay at a hotel near campus, and are shuttled by SWOTT staff to campus before the first morning session, and back to the hotel after the last afternoon session.