Purpose | Goals | Cost | 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.

Cost
SWOTT will cover most expenses with the exception of airfare to and from the conference (we reimburse the cost of your flight or drive for up to a maximum of $350 but participants are responsible for purchasing their ticket and we reimburse them upon completion of the workshop). Once a participant has been invited, they are asked to pay a $150 conference fee. This covers lodging for 7 nights and some meals. We will have a welcome reception on the first evening of the workshop, and a banquet on the last evening, as well as at least one informal dinner gathering. We will also provide coffee, water, soft drinks, and snacks during the daily session. Finally, the workshop will provide for a day trip to a counterterrorism facility in the Oklahoma City, OK area.

Schedule
Experts from different backgrounds (academic, government, private industry) will serve as guest speakers. There will also be a field-trip to a relevant counter-terrorism training facilities.

Dates for the ‘08 workshop are:

Oklahoma University: June 4-11 and June 23-30 (June 4 and 11 and June 23 and 30 are travel dates; we only ask that you be in Oklahoma City by 5pm on June 4 or June 23 for a meet-and-greet that evening).

Sleeping/Eating Arrangements
As indicated above, some meals will be provided by the workshop, and snacks/drinks will be available during the meetings. Participants will all stay at a local hotel near campus, and shuttles will be provided between the hotel and campus before the first morning session and after the last afternoon session.