Kristin's Recap of Day 1 of Conference

The following is a recap of Day 1 of the conference from Guest Blogger Kristin Fleischer who is a Doctoral Student in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University:

First of all, I would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Maura Conway and Ms. Lisa McInerney for their efforts organizing this conference and to DCU for hosting. It’s a lovely venue (and especially appealing for someone who has spent the summer in Phoenix Arizona where the average temperature is about 45 C) and an exciting group of researchers.

This morning started with welcome remarks and a presentation by Dr. John Horgan, Director of the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Horgan touched on several topics, not the least of which was the state of terrorism research as an academic field. Despite the popular awareness of terrorism as a ‘hot’ topic in academia, he cautioned that there is still an urgent need for increased rigor and depth of research in the field. There should be greater focus on integrating policy with evidence, and understanding that there are no ‘simple answers’ to these issues. Academic research can contribute a great deal to practitioners and policy makers he stressed, but we – as researchers – need to be asking the right questions, and gain a better understanding of the heterogeneity of the threats terrorism presents.

With these words in mind, conference panels began. I have to say, as a graduate student in the field of Communication, it was absolutely fascinating to see how broad and varied the research being presented was. I think that inter-disciplinary conferences like this one are highly important if for no other reason than they can shake us out of our rut, as it were. The first panel I attended was an excellent example of this. Under the theme of framing terrorism in both ‘old’ and ‘new’ media, presentations ranged from understanding terrorism as theatre to an exploration of how the “elite corps” of US press view their role in national security to a look at the transmediation of the ‘Underwear Bomber’ story.

The intersection of terrorism (and its affects) was also examined in pop culture. From movies, to graphic novels, to narrative in video games, each panel explored a facet of the complex phenomenon we label ‘terrorism.’

The day was capped by a fantastic dinner (I had the lamb in a lovely thyme sauce!) put on by the University service, which was a lovely end to a fascinating day.

I hope to organize my notes a bit more and explore in greater depth some of the topics discussed in the panels today, but for now, I will say Sláinte and good night from Dublin.