John Jay College Of Criminal Justice | The City University of New York

   

New York, NY – March 24, 2008 – John Jay College of Criminal Justice announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded $580,603 in grants to the College.  These grants will support education, research and professional development efforts targeted at training the next generation of homeland security experts and scholars.

According to John Jay President Jeremy Travis, “The Department of Homeland Security grants solidify John Jay’s role as a premier research institution for the study of terrorism and other domestic security issues.  These grants will help to support innovative faculty projects that will prepare our students for future leadership roles.”

The two multi-year grants will enhance the doctoral, masters and undergraduate-level curriculum and support early-career faculty research.

The grants will fund the following project:

• $291,835 that will be used to recruit and train an interdisciplinary group of criminal justice faculty and students in the CUNY Criminal Justice Doctoral Program.  It will also support the undergraduate John Jay Criminal Justice Honors Program efforts to teach and conduct research on homeland security and terrorism, targeting applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups.  Students will have the opportunity to participate in internships with peer institutions as well as develop and present empirical research.
  
  Professor Stephen K. Rice of the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration and Professor Joshua D. Freilich of the Department of Sociology are Co-Principal Investigators for the project.
  
  According to Principal Investigator Stephen K. Rice, PhD, "Teaching and research are not mutually exclusive.  They inform one another, and provide students with excellent opportunities to better understand the global and domestic challenges we face -- whether that be in assessing predictors of Islamist radicalization or recruitment techniques employed by domestic terrorist groups.  We've attempted to utilize an integrated framework in the program."
  
  Adds Co-Principal Investigator Joshua D. Freilich, JD, PhD, "We look forward to providing intensive mentorship to assist students in their professional development as they pursue research or practitioner-based careers in relation to policy and prevention of terrorism."
  
  In addition, the grant draws on scholars from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the City University of New York Graduate Center and peer institutions.  The project team includes John Jay College’s Prof. Karen J. Terry and Prof. Michael D. White; University of Maryland’s Prof. Katherine Worboys; and Michigan State University’s Prof. Steve M. Chermak.

• $288,768 for a project entitled “Educating Tomorrow’s Homeland Security Leaders Today.”  The project is designed to enhance John Jay College Graduate Curriculum’s focus on homeland security and increase the ability of early career faculty to conduct research into homeland security topics involving the social, behavioral and economic sciences.  The grant will help to create a Homeland Security Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (HS-STEM) community of students and support the retention and recruit of minority graduate students interested in homeland security careers.
  
  The Project’s Director Prof. Peter Romaniuk of the College’s Department of Government noted, “This grant will enable students and faculty to interact in an educational environment that prizes integration of skills and knowledge, while building leaders capable of responding to homeland security challenges in the 21^st Century.

About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 14,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations.  In teaching, scholarship and research, the College approaches justice as an applied art and science in service to society and as an ongoing conversation about fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law.  For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.